:,'««! 


LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


<r& 


THE    WORDS    OF 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


FOR  USE  IN  SCHOOLS 


SELECTED,  ARRANGED  AND  ANNOTATED 


BY 


ISAAC   THOMAS,  A.M.  (Yale) 

PRINCIPAL    OF    THE    HIGH     SCHOOL,    BURLINGTON,     VT. 


"Utterances  of  wonderful  beauty  and  grandeur." — Carl  Schurz 


CHICAGO 

WESTERN  PUBLISHING  HOUSE 


Copyright,  1898,  by 
WESTERN"  PUBLISHING  HOUSE 


Words  A.  L.— 1-8 


^7 3  J  1*3       L 
RT3C 


PREFACE. 


This  book  is  not  a  biography,  nor  was  it  intended  to 
be.  Its  main  purpose  is  to  put  within  the  reach  of  our 
youth  a  collection  of  Lincoln's  words  which,  in  them- 
selves, will  be  a  source  of  inspiration  to  all  that  read 
them  and  will  serve  as  models  of  good  English  to  the 
schools,  and  to  make  known  his  words  as  they  ought 
to  be  known  by  all  good  Americans. 

It  is  impossible  to  lay  too  much  stress  upon  these 
qualities  of  Lincoln's  words:  their  inspiring  power, 
their  terseness  and  vigor,  and  their  worthiness  to  be 
studied  and  known  by  his  countrymen.  The  editor, 
therefore,  asks  the  special  attention  of  the  readers  of 
this  book  to  what  has  been  said  upon  this  matter  by 
the  writers  quoted. 

A  second  purpose  of  the  book  is  to  gather  together 
into  such  form  as  will  make  them  easily  accessible  to 
the  young,  those  speeches,  letters  and  state  papers  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  that  most  clearly  reveal  what  sort  of 
patriot,  statesman  and  man  he  was.  It  has  in  it,  there- 
fore, no  connected  or  detailed  account  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
boyhood  or  early  manhood.  It  begins  with  him  where 
his  national  life  may  be  said  to  begin,  in  the  middle  of 
the  year  1858,  giving  some  of  his  deeds  and  words  from 
that  time  to  his  death.  What  he  did  and  said  before 
1858,  though  important  as  a  preparation  for  his  larger 
work,  were  almost  entirely  local  in  their  character,  and 
r  have,  therefore,  a  limited  interest  to  the  young  people 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

of  to-day,  who  can  know  him  in  an  historical  way  only. 
But  in  what  he  was  and  in  what  he  did  the  last  seven 
years  of  his  life,  he  belongs  to  his  country  and  to  all 
the  world. 

In  choosing  examples  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  work  the 
limits  of  the  book  allowed  the  choice  of  only  a  certain 
amount  of  material,  so  that  the  editor  was  compelled  to 
exercise  self-denial  to  a  very  high  degree.  And  since  he 
was  thereby  precluded  from  much  interesting  matter, 
the  greater  care  had  to  be  taken  in  order  that  the 
speeches,  state  papers,  etc.,  chosen,  might  be  repre- 
sentative of  their  author  in  the  highest  and  best  sense. 
This  task  was  made  a  good  deal  easier  by  the  fact  that 
Lincoln's  public  life  and  service  mainly  centered  in 
the  struggle  against,  and  for  the  extinction  of,  slavery 
in  the  United  States. 

The  speeches  that  have  been  chosen  include  nearly 
all,  if  not  quite  all,  the  arguments  Mr.  Lincoln  used  in 
the  discussion  of  slavery  and  the  other  questions  of  his 
day,  if,  indeed,  there  can  be  said  to  have  been  other 
questions.  And  to  the  reader  of  all  his  great  speeches, 
it  is  astonishing  how  few  those  arguments  were. 

The  state  papers,  messages  and  proclamations  and 
the  public  letters  all  bear  upon  the  same  subject — the 
salvation  of  the  Union  with  the  extinction  of  slavery. 
In  the  choice  of  these,  the  editor  has  been  guided  by 
his  desire  to  present  connectedly  Mr.  Lincoln's  prog- 
ress to  the  perception  that  the  extinction  of  slavery 
was  necessary  to  the  salvation  of  the  Union.  In  these 
is  shown  also  his  wonderful  political  sagacity  in  refus- 
ing to  move  forward  faster  than  the  support  of  the 
people  would  warrant,  and  in  knowing  just  the  right 
time  for  the  next  move. 

The  letters  are  of  two  sorts,  public  and  private.     In 


PREFACE.  5 

the  public  letters  Mr.  Lincoln  defends,  explains  or  vin- 
dicates his  public  action.  Written  to  private  individuals, 
to  committees,  and  to  men  in  public  position,  they  are 
in  reality  addressed  to  the  public,  to  the  people,  to 
debate  with  them  questions  of  public  importance  and  to 
prepare  their  minds  for  his  next  action.  In  the  purely 
private  letters  Mr.  Lincoln  is  seen  in  another  light 
entirely.  His  sympathy,  his  thoughtfulness,  his  kind- 
ness, his  gentleness  and  his  fidelity  to  his  duty  all 
come  before  us.  All  his  speeches,  state  papers,  letters 
and  addresses  are  so  plain,  so  simple,  as  to  need  only  a 
reading  to  be  understood.  The  editor,  therefore,  has 
been  careful  to  add  a  note  here  and  there  only. 

In  addition  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  words,  some  of  the 
best  things  that  have  been  written  about  him  and  his 
words  have  been  put  into  the  book.  These  serve  (i)  to 
present  a  view  of  him  not  possible  to  be  obtained  from 
his  own  writings,  given,  as  it  is,  by  his  contemporaries ; 
(2)  to  call  attention  to  some  special  characteristic  of  his 
speeches,  letters  and  papers,  and  in  this  way  to  make 
clearer  their  object  and  the  nature  of  the  work  which 
he  was  doing;  (3)  to  show  to  the  youth  of  our  schools 
what  friends,  eminent  public  men,  and  poets  have  said 
of  him;  (4)  to  bind  together  the  book  into  a  connected 
whole  and  so  give  a  more  nearly  complete  portrait  of 
Mr.  Lincoln;  and  (5)  to  induce  both  teacher  and  pupil 
to  read  more  widely  and  study  more  carefully  the 
words  of  the  "first  American." 

In  the  arrangement  of  the  material  selected,  the 
greatest  care  has  been  taken  so  that  the  picture  might 
grow  as  the  reading  proceeded  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end.  The  editor  believes  this  part  of  his  work  will 
commend  itself  to  any  who  will  examine  it  carefully. 

Lastly,  the  purpose  of  the  book  is  to  present  a  con- 


6  PREFACE. 

necled  piece  of  history  covering  the  question  of  slavery 
in  the  United  States  as  only  Mr.  Lincoln  has  covered 
it,  and  giving"  an  exposition  of  the  war  for  the  Union 
made  by  a  master  hand.  The  words  and  example  of 
Lincoln,  rightly  understood  by  our  young  people, 
cannot  fail  of  good  in  bringing  them  to  see  more 
clearly  what  true  patriotism  is  as  set  forth  in  the  say- 
ings and  deeds  of  "the  kindly-earnest,  brave,  fore- 
seeing man,"  who  gave  his  life  also  to  the  cause 
for  which  so  many  others  died,  "that  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,    for  the  people,   shall  not 

perish  from  the  earth. ' ' 

I.  T. 

Burlington,  Vt.,  September,  1898. 


PUBLISHERS'    NOTE. 

Acknowledgments  are  due  for  permission  to  use  copyright  se- 
lections in  this  volume  as  follows:  To  Horace  L.  Traubel,  for  "My 
Captain ;"  to  the  Indeftende?it  of  New  York,  for  the  stories  taken 
from  "Six  Months  at  the  White  House;"  to  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
for  the  selections  from  "Herndon's  Life  of  Lincoln"  and  for  the 
poems  by  Bryant  which  are  taken  by  their  special  permission 
from  the  Poetical  Works  of  Win.  Cullen  Bryant,  edited  by  Parke 
Godwin.  The  selections  by  Whittier,  Holmes,  Lowell,  Taylor, 
Schurz  and  Phoebe  Cary  are  used  by  permission  of  and  by  special 
arrangement  with  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 

Publishers. 


CONTENTS. 


Chronological  list  of  events  in  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  .  10 

Lincoln's  favorite  poem       ....      William  Knox.  n 

Extract  from  "  Abraham  Lincoln  "   Jcwies  Russell  Lowell.  14 

Lincoln's  boyhood  and  youth      .         .         .          Carl  Schurz.  20 

Lincoln's  method  of  study      .         .         Rev.  J.  P.  Gulliver.  24 

Lincoln's  three  great  political  speeches 26 

Speech  at  Springfield,  111.— June  16,  1858      ....  27 

Lincoln's  rule  of  political  action        .         .      Leonard  Swett.  40 

Lincoln  as  an  orator      ....      Wm.  H.  Hemdon.  42 

Speech  in  reply  to  Senator  Douglas — July  10,  185S         .        .  45 

Lincoln  as  a  lawyer Leonard  Sivett.  61 

Lincoln  as  a  lawyer        .         .         .        Judge  David  Davis.  62 

Lincoln  as  a  lawyer    ....         Wm.  H.  Hemdon.  64 

Speech  at  Cooper  Union,  New  York — February  27,  1S60       .  66 

Extract  from  speech  at  Hartford,  Conn. — March  5,  1S60     .  97 

Some  characteristics  of  Lincoln      .         .      Joshua  F.  Speed.  98 

Farewell  speech  at  Springfield,  Illinois — February  11,  1861  .  100 

Extract  from  speech  at  Pittsburg — February,  186 1          .         .  101 

Speech  at  Philadelphia — February  21,  1861          .         .         .  103 

The  situation  in  186 1        .        .        ...        .    Carl  Schurz.  105 

First  Inaugural  Address — March  4,  1861              .        .        .  109 

Estimate  of  Lincoln       ....     W?n.  H.  Hemdon.  124 

Lincoln's  management  of  men          .        .     Leo7iard  Sivett.  129 

A  proclamation — April  15,1 861 131 

Message  to  congress  in  special  session — July  4,  1861       .         .  133 
Lincoln's  mode  of  life  at  the  White  House      .      John  Hay.  158 
Message  to  congress  recommending  compensated  emancipa- 
tion— March  6,  1862 161 

Message  to  congress — April  16,  1862 164 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

Page 
Proclamation  revoking  General  Hunter's  order  of  military 

emancipation — May  19,  1862       ......  165 

Order  authorizing  employment  of  contrabands — July  22,  1S62  16S 

Letter  to  Horace  Greeley — August  22,  1S62        .         .         .  169 

Preliminary  emancipation  proclamation — September  22, 1S62  170 

Final  emancipation  proclamation — January  1,  1863    .         .  174 
Account  of  the  emancipation  proclamation,  as  related  to  F. 

B.  Carpenter 177 

Hymn  after  the  emancipation  proclamation 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  1S0 

The  death  of  slavery    .         .         .     William  Cull  en  Bryant.  181 

Lincoln's  letters Carl  Schurz.  184 

Letter  to  J.  C.  Conkling — August  26,  1863  ....  186 

Letter  to  A.  G.  Hodges— April  4,  1S64 193 

An  English  estimate  of  Lincoln 

— London  Spectator,  April  25  and  May  2,  1S91  .  .  196 
Letter  to  General  G.  B.  McClellan — April  9, 1S62  .  .  .  202 
Letter  to  General  G.  B.  McClellan — May  9,  1S62  .  .  205 
Letter  to  General  G.  B.  McClellan — October  13,  1S62  .  .  206 
Letter  to  General  Schofield  relating  to  the  removal  of  Gen- 
eral Curtis — May  27,  1S63 210 

Letter  to  General  U.  S.  Grant — July  13,  1S63 211 

Letter  to  General  U.  S.  Grant — April  30,  1S64     .         .         .  212 

Order  for  Sabbath  observance — November  16,  1S62         .         .  213 

Our  good  president P/ia?be  Cary.  214 

Tribute  to  President  Lincoln 

— London  Daily  News,  April  27,  1865         ....  216 

Abraham  Lincoln        .         .         .      William  Cull  en  Bryant.  21S 
Letter  to  the  workingmen  of  Manchester,  England — January 

19,  1863 219 

Proclamation  for  Thanksgiving — October  3,  1S63    .        .         .  222 
Address  at  the  dedication  of  the  Gettysburg  National  Ceme- 
tery— November  19,  1863 224 


CONTENTS. 

Extract  from  Gettysburg  ode    .         .         .      Bayard  Taylor.  11^ 

Extract  from  the  last  annual  message — December  6,  1864      .  226 

Laus  Deo !  John  Greenleaf  Whittier.  234 

Second  inaugural  address — March  4,  1865     .         .         .        .  237 
The  "second  inaugural" 

— London  Spectator,  April  25  and  May  2,  1891        .         .  240 

Last  public  address — April  11,  1865 241 

My  Captain Walt  Whitman.  248 

Extract  from  commemoration  ode   .  James  Russell  Lowell.  250 

Some  stories  about  Lincoln 255 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Opp.  Page 

Portrait  of  Lincoln n 

Log  cabin  in  which  Lincoln  was  born    ....  20 

Residence  in  Springfield 64 

Wigwam,  Chicago 98 

Portrait  of  Lincoln 170 

Gettysburg  National  Cemetery 224 

Lincoln  Monument,  Springfield 24S 

White  House 255 


IO  CHRONOLOGICAL    LIST    OF    EVENTS. 


Chronological  List  of  Events  in  the   Life  of 

Abraham  Lincoln. 

Born  in  a  log-cabin  near  Hodgensville,  now  Larue  county, 

Kentucky February  12,  1809 

His  father  moves  with  his  family  into  the  wilderness  near 

Gentry ville,  Indiana 1816 

His  mother  dies,  at  the  age  of  35 1818 

His  father's  second  marriage 18 19 

Makes  a  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  back,  at  work  on  a  flat- 
boat        1828 

Drives  in  an  ox-cart  with  his  father  and  stepmother  to  a 

clearing  on  the  Sangamon  river,  near  Decatur,  Illinois     1829 
Makes  another  fiat-boat  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  back,  on 
which  trip  he   first   sees   negroes    shackled    together, 
and  forms  his  opinions  concerning  slavery    -        -    May,  183 1 
Begins  work  in  a  store  at  New  Salem,  Illinois  -        -  August,  183 1 
Enlists  in   the   Black    Hawk    war;     elected  a    captain  of 

volunteers 1832 

Announces   himself  a  whig  candidate   for  the   legislature, 

and  is  defeated  -        --- 1832 

Elected  to  the  Illinois  legislature       -  1834 

Reelected  to  the  legislature    ,        -        -        -        -  1835  to  1842 

Studies  law  at  Springfield  -        -        -        -        •         -  1837 

Is  a  presidential  elector  on  the  whig  national  ticket      -        -     1840 

Marries  Mary  Todd November  4,  1842 

Canvasses  Illinois  for  Henry  Clay 1844 

Elected  to  congress 1846 

Supports  General  Taylor  for  president       -  1848 

Engages  in  law  practice 1849-18  54 

Debates  with  Douglas  at  Peoria  and  Springfield       -        -  1855 

Aids  in  organizing  the  republican  party  -  -  -  1855 -1856 
Joint  debates  in  Illinois  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas    -        -  1858 

Visits  New  York,  and  speaks  at  Cooper  Union  -  February,  i860 
Attends  republican    state  convention  at  Decatur ;  declared 

to  be  the  choice  of  Illinois  for  the  presidency  -        -  May,  i860 
Nominated    at  Chicago    as  the    republican    candidate  for 

president -    May  16,  i860 

Elected  president    over  J.   C.     Breckenridge,   Stephen    A. 

Douglas  and  John  Bell        -  November,  i860 

Inaugurated  president March  4,  1861 

Issues  first  order  for  troops April  15,  1861 

Issues  emancipation  proclamation  ...  January  1,  1863 
His  address  at  Gettysburg  ...  -  November  19,  1863 
Calls  for  500,000  volunteers  -  July.  ^64 

Renominated  and  reelected  president     -----     1864 

His  second  inauguration March  4,  1865 

Assassinated     -        - April  14,  1865 


±//  OLsCsiysC^r^S 


THE  WORDS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

LINCOLN'S  FAVORITE  POEM. 

Oh!  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud? 
Like  a  swift-fleeting  meteor,  a  fast-flying  cloud, 
A  flash  of  the  lightning,  a  break  of  the  wave, 
He  passe th  from  life  to  his  rest  in  the  grave. 

The  leaves  of  the  oak  and  the  willow  shall  fade, 

Be  scattered  around,  and  together  be  laid ; 

And  the  young  and  the  old,  and  the  low  and  the  high, 

Shall  moulder  to  dust,  and  together  shall  lie. 

The  infant  a  mother  attended  and  loved ; 
The  mother  that  infant's  affection  who  proved; 
The  husband,  that  mother  and  infant  who  blest, — 
Each,  all,  are  away  to  their  dwellings  of  Rest. 

The  maid  on  whose  cheek,  on  whose  brow,  in  whose 

eye, 
Shone  beauty  and  pleasure, — her  triumphs  are  by; 
And  the  memory  of  those  who  loved  her  and  praised, 
Are  alike  from  the  minds  of  the  living  erased. 


ii 


12  Lincoln's  favorite  poem. 

The  hand  of  the  king  that  the  sceptre  hath  borne, 
The  brow  of  the  priest  that  the  mitre  hath  worn, 
The  eye  of  the  sage,  and  the  heart  of  the  brave, 
Are  hidden  and  lost  in  the  depths  of  the  grave. 

The  peasant,  whose  lot  was  to  sow  and  to  reap, 

The  herdsman,    who  climbed    with  his  goats  up  the 

steep, 
The  beggar,  who  wandered  in  search  of  his  bread, 
Have  faded  away  like  the  grass  that  we  tread. 

The  saint,  who  enjoyed  the  communion  of  heaven, 
The  sinner,  who  dared  to  remain  unforgiven, 
The  wise  and  the  foolish,  the  guilty  and  just, 
Have  quietly  mingled  their  bones  in  the  dust. 

So  the  multitude  goes — like  the  flower  or  the  weed 
That  withers  away  to  let  others  succeed; 
So  the  multitude  comes — even  those  we  behold, 
To  repeat  every  tale  that  has  often  been  told. 

For  we  are  the  same  our  fathers  have  been ; 
We  see  the  same  sights  our  fathers  have  seen ; 
We  drink  the  same  stream,  we  view  the  same  sun, 
And  run  the  same  course  our  fathers  have  run. 

The  thoughts  we  are  thinking,  our  fathers  would  think; 
From  the  death  we  are  shrinking,  our  fathers  would 
shrink ; 


Lincoln's  favorite  poem.  13 

To  the  life  we  are  clinging,  they  also  would  cling; — 
But  it  speeds  for  us  all  like  a  bird  on  the  wing. 


They  loved — but  the  story  we  cannot  unfold; 
They  scorned — but  the  heart  of  the  haughty  is  cold; 
They  grieved — but   no    wail  from  their  slumber  will 


come; 


They  joyed — but  the  tongue  of  their  gladness  is  dumb. 

They  died — aye,  they  died ; — we  things  that  are  now, 
That  walk  on  the  turf  that  lies  over  their  brow, 
And  make  in  their  dwellings  a  transient  abode, 
Meet  the    things   that  they  met   on  their  pilgrimage 
road. 

Yea!  hope  and  despondency,  pleasure  and  pain, 
Are  mingled  together  in  sunshine  and  rain ; 
And  the  smile  and  the  tear,  the  song  and  the  dirge, 
Still  follow  each  other,  like  surge  upon  surge. 

'Tis  the  wink  of  an  eye — 'tis  the  draught  of  a  breath — 
From  the  blossom  of  health  to  the  paleness  of  death, 
From  the  gilded  saloon  to  the  bier  and  the  shroud : — 
Oh!  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud? 

William  Knox. 


Note. — Mr.   Knox  was   a   Scotchman,  a  contemporary  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott.     He  died  in  1825,  at  the  age  of  36. 


14       EXTRACT  FROM  "ABRAHAM  LINCOLN," 


EXTRACT   FROM    "ABRAHAM    LINCOLN." 

Never  did  a  President  enter  upon  office  with  less 
means  at  his  command,  outside  his  own  strength  of 
heart  and  steadiness  of  understanding,  for  inspiring 
confidence  in  the  people,  and  so  winning  it  for  himself, 
than  Mr.  Lincoln.  All  that  was  known  of  him  was 
that  he  was  a  good  stump-speaker,  nominated  for  his 
availability \ — that  is,  because  he  had  no  history, — and 
chosen  by  a  party  with  whose  more  extreme  opinions 
he  was  not  in  sympathy.  It  might  well  be  feared  that 
a  man  past  fifty,  against  whom  the  ingenuity  of  hostile 
partisans  could  rake  up  no  accusation,  must  be  lacking 
in  manliness  of  character,  in  decision  of  principle,  in 
strength  of  will ;  that  a  man  who  was  at  best  only  the 
representative  of  a  party,  and  who  yet  did  not  fairly 
represent  even  that,  would  fail  of  political,  much  more 
of  popular,  support.  And  certainly  no  one  ever  entered 
upon  office  with  so  few  resources  of  power  in  the  past, 
and  so  many  materials  of  weakness  in  the  present,  as 
Mr.  Lincoln.  Even  in  that  half  of  the  Union  which 
acknowledged  him  as  President,  there  was  a  large,  and 
at  that  time  dangerous  minority,  that  hardly  admitted 
his  claim  to  the  office,  and  even  in  the  party  that 
elected  him  there  was  also  a  large  minority  that  sus- 
pected him  of  being  secretly  a  communicant  with  the 
church  of  Laodicea.*     All  that  he  did  was  sure  to  be 


■See  the  Book  of  Revelations,  chapter  iii.,  verse  15. 


EXTRACT    FROM    "ABRAHAM    LINCOLN."  1 5 

virulently  attacked  as  ultra  by  one  side;  all  that  he 
left  undone,  to  be  stigmatized  as  proof  of  lukewarm- 
ness  and  backsliding  by  the  other.  Meanwhile  he  was 
to  carry  on  a  truly  colossal  war  by  means  of  both ;  he 
was  to  disengage  the  country  from  diplomatic  entangle- 
ments of  unprecedented  peril  undisturbed  by  the  help 
or  the  hindrance  of  either,  and  to  win  from  the  crown- 
ing dangers  of  his  administration,  in  the  confidence  of 
the  people,  the  means  of  his  safety  and  their  own.  He 
has  contrived  to  do  it,  and  perhaps  none  of  our  Presi- 
dents since  Washington  has  stood  so  firm  in  the  confi- 
dence of  the  people  as  he  does  after  three  years  of 
stormy  administration. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  was  a  tentative  one,  and  rightly 
so.  He  laid  down  no  programme  which  must  compel 
him  to  be  either  inconsistent  or  unwise,  no  cast-iron 
theorem  to  which  circumstances  must  be  fitted  as  they 
rose,  or  else  be  useless  to  his  ends.  He  seemed  to 
have  chosen  Mazarin's  motto,  Le  temps  et  moi*  The 
moi,  to  be  sure,  was  not  very  prominent  at  first ;  but 
it  has  grown  more  and  more  so,  till  the  world  is  begin- 
ning to  be  persuaded  that  it  stands  for  a  character  of 
marked  individuality  and  capacity  for  affairs.  Time 
was  his  prime-minister,  and,  we  began  to  think,  at  one 
period,  his  general-in-chief  also.  At  first  he  was  so 
slow  that  he  tired  out  all  those  who  see  no  evidence  of 
progress  but  in  blowing  up  the  engine ;  then  he  was  so 


*  Time  and  I.     Cardinal  Mazarin  was  prime-minister  of  Louis 
XIV.  of  France.     Time,  Mazarin  said,  was  his  prime-minister. 


1 6  EXTRACT    FROM     "ABRAHAM    LINCOLN." 

fast,  that  he  took  the  breath  away  from  those  who 
think  there  is  no  getting  on  safely  while  there  is  a 
spark  of  fire  tinder  the  boilers.  God  is  the  only  being 
who  has  time  enough ;  but  a  prudent  man,  who  knows 
how  to  seize  occasion,  can  commonly  make  a  shift  to 
find  as  much  as  he  needs.  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  it  seems  to 
us  in  reviewing  his  career,  though  we  have  sometimes 
in  our  impatience  thought  otherwise,  has  always 
waited,  as  a  wise  man  should,  till  the  right  moment 
brought  up  all  his  reserves.  Semper  nocuit  differre 
paratis*  is  a  sound  axiom,  but  the  really  efficacious 
man  will  also  be  sure  to  know  when  he  is  not  ready, 
and  be  firm  against  all  persuasion  and  reproach  till 
he  is. 

Mr.  Lincoln  is  sometimes  claimed  as  an  example  of 
a  ready-made  ruler.  But  no  case  could  well  be  less  in 
point;  for,  besides  that  he  was  a  man  of  such  fair- 
mindedness  as  is  always  the  raw  material  of  wisdom, 
he  had  in  his  profession  a  training  precisely  the  oppo- 
site of  that  to  which  a  partisan  is  subjected.  His 
experience  as  a  lawyer  compelled  him  not  only  to  see 
that  there  is  a  principle  underlying  every  phenomenon 
in  human  affairs,  but  that  there  are  always  two  sides  to 
every  question,  both  of  which  must  be  fully  understood 
in  order  to  understand  either,  and  that  it  is  of  greater 
advantage  to  an  advocate  to  appreciate  the  strength 
than  the  weakness  of  his  antagonist's  position.  Noth- 
ing is  more  remarkable  than  the  unerring  tact  with 

*  It  is  always  bad  for  those  who  are  ready  to  put  off  action. 


EXTRACT    FROM     "ABRAHAM    LINCOLN."  1 7 

which,  in  his  debate  with  Mr.  Douglas,  he  went 
straight  to  the  reason  of  the  question;  nor  have  we 
ever  had  a  more  striking  lesson  in  political  tactics  than 
the  fact,  that  opposed  to  a  man  exceptionally  adroit  in 
using  popular  prejudice  and  bigotry  to  his  purpose, 
exceptionally  unscrupulous  in  appealing  to  those  baser 
motives  that  turn  a  meeting  of  citizens  into  a  mob  of 
barbarians,  he  should  yet  have  won  his  case  before  a 
jury  of  the  people.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  as  far  as  possible 
from  an  impromptu  politician.  His  wisdom  was  made 
up  of  a  knowledge  of  things  as  well  as  of  men;  his 
sagacity  resulted  from  a  clear  perception  and  honest 
acknowledgment  of  difficulties,  which  enabled  him  to 
see  that  the  only  durable  triumph  of  political  opinion 
is  based,  not  on  any  abstract  right,  but  upon  so  much 
of  justice,  the  highest  attainable  at  any  given  moment 
in  human  affairs,  as  may  be  had  in  the  balance  of  mutual 
concession.  Doubtless  he  had  an  ideal,  but  it  was  the 
ideal  of  a  practical  statesman, — to  aim  at  the  best,  and 
to  take  the  next  best,  if  he  is  lucky  enough  to  get  even 
that.  His  slow,  but  singularly  masculine,  intelligence 
taught  him  that  precedent  is  only  another  name  for 
embodied  experience,  and  that  it  counts  for  even  more 
in  the  guidance  of  communities  of  men  than  in  that  of 
the  individual  life.  He  was  not  a  man  who  held  it 
good  public  economy  to  pull  down  on  the  mere  chance 
of  rebuilding  better.  Mr.  Lincoln's  faith  in  God  was 
qualified  by  a  very  well-founded  distrust  of  the  wisdom 
of  man.     Perhaps   it  was  his  want  of  self-confidence 


l8  EXTRACT    FROM    "ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


>> 


that  more  than  anything  else  won  him  the  unlimited 
confidence  of  the  people,  for  they  felt  that  there  would 
be  no  need  of  retreat  from  any  position  he  had 
deliberately  taken.  The  cautious,  but  steady,  advance 
of  his  policy  during  the  war  was  like  that  of  a  Roman 
army.  He  left  behind  him  a  firm  road  on  which  public 
confidence  could  follow;  he  took  America  with  him 
where  he  went ;  what  he  gained  he  occupied,  and  his 
advanced  posts  became  colonies.  The  very  homeli- 
ness of  his  genius  was  its  distinction.  His  kingship 
was  conspicuous  by  its  workday  homespun.  Never 
was  ruler  so  absolute  as  he,  nor  so  little  conscious  of 
it;  for  he  was  the  incarnate  common-sense  of  the 
people.  With  all  that  tenderness  of  nature  whose 
sweet  sadness  touched  whoever  saw  him  with  some- 
thing of  its  own  pathos,  there  was  no  trace  of  senti- 
mentalism  in  his  speech  or  action.  He  seems  to  have 
had  but  one  rule  of  conduct,  always  that  of  practical 
and  successful  politics,  to  let  himself  be  guided  by 
events,  when  they  were  sure  to  bring  him  out  where 
he  wished  to  go,  though  by  what  seemed  to  unprac- 
tical minds,  which  let  go  the  possible  to  grasp  at  the 
desirable,  a  longer  road. 

On  the  day  of  his  death,  this  simple  Western  attor- 
ney, who  according  to  one  party  was  a  vulgar  joker, 
and  whom  the  doctrinaires  among  his  own  supporters 
accused  of  wanting  every  element  of  statesmanship, 
was  the  most  absolute  ruler  in  Christendom,  and  this 
solely  by  the  hold  his  good-humored  sagacity  had  laid 


EXTRACT  FROM  "ABRAHAM  LINCOLN."        19 

on  the  hearts  and  understandings  of  his  countrymen. 
Nor  was  this  all,  for  it  appeared  that  he  had  drawn  the 
great  majority,  not  only  of  his  fellow-citizens,  but  of 
mankind  also,  to  his  side.  So  strong  and  so  persuasive 
is  honest  manliness  without  a  single  quality  of  romance 
or  unreal  sentiment  to  help  it !  A  civilian  during  times 
of  the  most  captivating  military  achievement,  awk- 
ward, with  no  skill  in  the  lower  technicalities  of  man- 
ners, he  left  behind  him  a  fame  beyond  that  of  any 
conqueror,  the  memory  of  a  grace  higher  than  that  of 
outward  person,  and  of  a  gentlemanliness  deeper  than 
mere  breeding.  Never  before  that  startled  April 
morning  did  such  multitudes  of  men  shed  tears  for  the 
death  of  one  they  had  never  seen,  as  if  with  him  a 
friendly  presence  had  been  taken  away  from  their 
lives,  leaving  them  colder  and  darker.  Never  was 
funeral  panegyric  so  eloquent  as  the  silent  look  of 
sympathy  which  strangers  exchanged  when  they  met 
on   that  day.      Their    common    manhood    had   lost  a 

kinsman. 

James  Russell  Lowell. 

Note. — This  essay  was  first  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
January,  1864.  The  last  paragraph  was  added  when  Mr.  Lowell 
collected  his  essays  into  book  form.  In  the  complete  edition  of 
his  works  the  date  is  given  1864-1865. 


20  LINCOLN  S    BOYHOOD    AND    YOUTH. 


LINCOLN'S    BOYHOOD    AND    YOUTH. 

The  statesman  or  the  military  hero  born  and  reared 
in  a  log  cabin  is  a  familiar  figure  in  American  history ; 
but  we  may  search  in  vain  among  our  celebrities  for 
one  whose  origin  and  early  life  equaled  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's in  wretchedness.  He  first  saw  the  light  in  a 
miserable  hovel  in  Kentucky,  on  a  farm  consisting  of  a 
few  barren  acres  in  a  dreary  neighborhood ;  his  father 
atypical  "poor  Southern  white, "  shiftless  and  improvi- 
dent, without  ambition  for  himself  or  his  children, 
constantly  looking  for  a  new  piece  of  land  on  which  he 
might  make  a  living  without  much  work;  his  mother, 
in  her  youth  handsome  and  bright,  grown  prematurely 
coarse  in  feature  and  soured  in  mind  by  daily  toil  and 
care;  the  whole  household  squalid,  cheerless,  and 
utterly  void  of  elevating  inspirations.  Only  when  the 
family  had  "moved"  into  the  malarious  backwoods  of 
Indiana,  the  mother  had  died,  and  a  stepmother,  a 
woman  of  thrift  and  energy,  had  taken  charge  of  the 
children,  the  shaggy-headed,  ragged,  barefooted,  for- 
lorn boy,  then  seven  years  old,  "began  to  feel  like  a 
human  being."  Hard  work  was  his  early  lot.  When 
a  mere  boy  he  had  to  help  in  supporting  the  family, 
either  on  his  father's  clearing,  or  hired  out  to  other 
farmers  to  plough,  or  dig  ditches,  or  chop  wood,  or 
drive  ox  teams;  occasionally  also  to  "tend  the  baby," 
when  the  farmer's  wife  was  otherwise  engaged.     He 


« 
o 
« 

OS 

O 
Q 


O 

t— i 

a 


O 


"^-'■'"fciiia^f 


Lincoln's  boyhood  and  youth.  21 

could  regard  it  as  an  advancement  to  a  higher  sphere 
of  activity  when  he  obtained  work  in  a  "cross-roads 
store,"  where  he  amused  the  customers  by  his  talk  over 
the  counter ;  for  he  soon  distinguished  himself  among 
the  backwoods  folk  as  one  who  had  something  to  say 
worth  listening  to.  To  win  that  distinction,  he  had  to 
draw  mainly  upon  his  wits;  for,  while  his  thirst  for 
knowledge  was  great,  his  opportunities  for  satisfying 
that  thirst  were  woefully  slender. 

In  the  log  school-house,  which  he  could  visit  but 
little,  he  was  taught  only  reading,  writing,  and 
elementary  arithmetic.  Among  the  people  of  the 
settlement,  bush  farmers  and  small  tradesmen,  he 
found  none  of  uncommon  intelligence  or  education; 
but  some  of  them  had  a  few  books,  which  he  borrowed 
eagerly.  Thus  he  read  and  re-read  "^Esop's  Fables," 
learning  to  tell  stories  with  a  point  and  to  argue  by 
parables;  he  read  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  "The  Pilgrim's 
Progress,"  a  short  history  of  the  United  States,  and 
Weems'  "Life  of  Washington."  To  the  town  con- 
stable's he  went  to  read  the  Revised  Statutes  of  Indi- 
ana. Every  printed  page  that  fell  into  his  hands  he 
would  greedily  devour,  and  his  family  and  friends 
watched  him  with  wonder,  as  the  uncouth  boy,  after 
his  daily  work,  crouched  in  a  corner  of  the  log  cabin  or 
outside  under  a  tree,  absorbed  in  a  book  while  munch- 
ing his  supper  of  corn  bread.  In  this  manner  he  began 
to  gather  some  knowledge,  and  sometimes  he  would 
astonish  the  girls  with  such  startling  remarks  as  that 


22  LINCOLN'S   BOYHOOD    AND    YOUTH. 

the  earth  was  moving  around  the  sun,  and  not  the  sun 
around  the  earth,  and  they  marveled  where  "Abe" 
could  have  got  such  queer  notions.  Soon  he  also  felt 
the  impulse  to  write;  not  only  making  extracts  from 
books  he  wished  to  remember,  but  also  composing 
little  essays  of  his  own.  First  he  sketched  these  with 
charcoal  on  a  wooden  shovel  scraped  white  with  a 
drawing-knife,  or  on  basswood  shingles.  Then  he 
transferred  them  to  paper,  which  was  a  scarce  com- 
modity in  the  Lincoln  household;  taking  care  to  cut 
his  expressions  close,  so  that  they  might  not  cover  too 
much  space, — a  style-forming  method  greatly  to  be 
commended.  Seeing  boys  put  a  burning  coal  on  the 
back  of  a  wood  turtle,  he  was  moved  to  write  on 
cruelty  to  animals.  Seeing  men  intoxicated  with 
whisky,  he  wrote  on  temperance.  In  verse-making, 
too,  he  tried  himself,  and  in  satire  on  persons  offensive 
to  him  or  others.  Also  political  thoughts  he  put  upon 
paper,  and  some  of  his  pieces  were  even  deemed  good 
enough  for  publication  in  the  county  weekly. 

Thus  he  won  a  neighborhood  reputation  as  a  clever 
young  man,  which  he  increased  by  his  performances  as 
a  speaker,  not  seldom  drawing  upon  himself  the  dis- 
satisfaction of  his  employers  by  mounting  a  stump  in 
the  field,  and  keeping  the  farm  hands  from  their  work 
by  little  speeches  in  a  jocose  and  sometimes  also  a 
serious  vein.  At  the  rude  social  frolics  of  the  settle- 
ment he  became  an  important  person,  telling  funny 
stories,   mimicking  the  itinerant  preachers  who  hap- 


Lincoln's  boyhood  and  youth.  23 

pened  to  pass  by,  and  making  his  mark  at  wrestling 
matches,  too;  for  at  the  age  of  seventeen  he  had 
attained  his  full  height,  six  feet  four  inches  in  his 
stockings,  if  he  had  any,  and  a  terribly  muscular  clod- 
hopper he  was.  But  he  was  known  never  to  use  his 
extraordinary  strength  to  the  injury  or  humiliation  of 
others ;  rather  to  do  them  a  kindly  turn,  or  to  enforce 
justice  and  fair  dealing  between  them.  All  this  made 
him  a  favorite  in  backwoods  society,  although  in  some 
things  he  appeared  a  little  odd  to  his  friends.  Far 
more  than  any  of  them,  he  was  given  not  only  to  read- 
ing, but  to  fits  of  abstraction,  to  quiet  musing  with 
himself,  and  also  to  strange  spells  of  melancholy,  from 
which  he  often  would  pass  in  a  moment  to  rollicking 
outbursts  of  droll  humor.  But,  on  the  whole,  he  was 
one  of  the  people  among  whom  he  lived;  in  appear- 
ance, perhaps,  even  a  little  more  uncouth  than  most  of 
them, — a  very  tall,  rawboned  youth,  with  large 
features,  dark,  shriveled  skin,  and  rebellious  hair;  his 
arms  and  legs  long,  out  of  proportion ;  clad  in  deerskin 
trousers,  which  from  frequent  exposure  to  the  rain 
had  shrunk  so  as  to  sit  tightly  on  his  limbs,  leaving 
several  inches  of  bluish  shin  exposed  between  their 
lower  end  and  the  heavy  tan  colored  shoes ;  the  nether 
garment  held  usually  by  only  one  suspender,  that  was 
strung  over  a  coarse  home-made  shirt;  the  head  cov- 
ered in  winter  with  a  coonskin  cap,  in  summer  with  a 
rough  straw  hat  of  uncertain  shape,  without  a  band. 
From  "Abraham  Lincoln."  Carl  Schurz. 


24  Lincoln's  method  of  study. 


After  his  Cooper  Union  Speech,  February  2j,  i860, 
Mr.  Lincoln  visited,  among  other  places,  Norwich,  Conn. 
The  following  is  his  answer  to  a  question  of  Mr.  Gulli- 
ver, in  the  railway  train  on  his  way  back  to  New  York: 

LINCOLN'S  METHOD   OF    STUDY. 

Well,  as  to  education,  the  newspapers  are  correct ;  I 
never  went  to  school  more  than  six  months  in  my  life. 
But,  as  you  say,  this  must  be  a  product  of  culture  in 
some  form.  I  have  been  putting  the  question  you  ask 
me  to  myself,  while  you  have  been  talking.  I  can  say 
this,  that  among  my  earliest  recollections  I  remember 
how,  when  a  mere  child,  I  used  to  get  irritated  when 
anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  I  could  not  understand. 
I  don't  think  I  ever  got  angry  at  anything  else  in  my 
life.  But  that  always  disturbed  my  temper,  and  has 
ever  since.  I  can  remember  going  to  my  little  bed- 
room, after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an  evening 
'  with  my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of  the  night 
walking  up  and  down,  and  trying  to  make  out  what  was 
the  exact  meaning  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  say- 
ings. I  could  not  sleep,  though  I  often  tried  to,  when 
I  got  on  such  a  hunt  after  an  idea,  until  I  had  caught 
it;  and  when  I  thought  I  had  got  it,  I  was  not  satisfied 
until  I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over,  until  I  had  put  it 
in  language  plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any  boy  I 
knew  to  comprehend.     This  was  a  kind  of  passion  with 


LINCOLN  S    METHOD    OF    STUDY.  25 

me,  and  it  has  stuck  by  me ;  for  I  am  never  easy  now, 
when  I  am  handling  a  thought,  till  I  have  bounded  it 
north,  and  bounded  it  south,  and  bounded  it  east,  and 
bounded  it  west.  Perhaps  that  accounts  for  the 
characteristic  you  observe  in  my  speeches,  though  I 
never  put  the  two  things  together  before. 

Oh,  yes!  I  "read  law,"  as  the  phrase  is — that  is,  I 
became  a  lawyer's  clerk  in  Springfield,  and  copied 
tedious  documents,  and  picked  up  what  I  could  of  law 
in  the  intervals  of  other  work.  But  your  question 
reminds  me  of  a  bit  of  education  I  had,  which  I  am 
bound  in  honesty  to  mention.  In  the  course  of  my 
law-reading,  I  constantly  came  upon  the  word  demon- 
strate. I  thought  at  first  that  I  understood  its  mean- 
ing, but  soon  became  satisfied  that  I  did  not.  I  said  to 
myself,  ""What  do  I  mean  when  I  demonstrate,  more 
than  when  I  reason  or  prove?  How  does  demonstra- 
tion differ  from  any  other  proof?"  I  consulted 
Webster's  Dictionary.  That  told  of  "certain  proof," 
"proof  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt" ;  but  I  could 
form  no  idea  what  sort  of  proof  that  was.  I  thought  a 
great  many  things  were  proved  beyond  a  possibility  of 
doubt,  without  recourse  to  any  such  extraordinary  proc- 
ess of  reasoning  as  I  understood  "demonstration"  to 
be.  I  consulted  all  the  dictionaries  and  books  of  refer- 
ence I  could  find,  but  with  no  better  results.  You 
might  as  well  have  defined  bine  to  a  blind  man.  At 
last  I  said,  "Lincoln,  you  can  never  make  a  lawyer  if 
you    do   not    understand   what    demonstrate    means"; 


26      Lincoln's  three  great  political  speeches. 

and  I  left  my  situation  in  Springfield,  went  home  to 
my  father's  house,  and  stayed  there  till  I  could  give 
any  proposition  in  the  six  books  of  Euclid  at  sight. 
I  then  found  out  what  "demonstrate"  means,  and  went 
back  to  my  law-studies. 


LINCOLN'S    THREE     GREAT    POLITICAL 

SPEECHES. 

Three  speeches  have  been  chosen  to  represent  Mr. 
Lincoln  in  the  political  field:  Springfield,  June  16,  1858; 
Chicago,  July  10,  1858;  Cooper  Union,  February  27, 
i860.  They  present,  when  taken  together,  not  only 
his  own  political  faith,  but  "a  body  of  Republic- 
an doctrine"  which  can  scarce  anywhere  be  equaled. 
Two  of  them,  the  first  and  third,  show  him  at  his 
best,  for  they  were,  probably,  the  most  carefully 
prepared  speeches  of  his  life.  The  first  struck  the  key- 
note of  the  great  contest  which  ended  in  the  downfall 
of  slavery,  and  was  the  text  from  which  Lincoln 
departed  but  little  in  his  great  debate  with  Douglas  the 
same  year.  The  third  is  a  tremendous  summary  of 
the  situation  in  i860  and  presents  Lincoln's  ripest  and 
fullest  thought  upon  that  situation.  Of  this  speech 
Mr.  Greeley  afterwards  said,  "I  do  not  hesitate  to  pro- 
nounce it  the  very  best  political  address  to  which  I 
•ever  listened — and  I  have  heard  some  of  Webster's 
grandest."      The   whole    history  of    slavery    in    this 


SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,    ILLINOIS.  27 

country  is  contained  in  these  speeches  and  set  forth 
with  transparent  clearness.  "The  (Cooper  Union) 
speech  is  worthy  of  great  praise,  and  ought  to  be  read 
entire  by  him  who  would  fully  understand  the  history 
of  the  year  i860."* — Ed. 


SPEECH  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILLINOIS. 

{Delivered  June  16,  1858,  at  the  close  of  the  Republicci7i  State 
Convention,  by  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  ?iominated  for 
United  States  Senator.') 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Conven- 
tion:— If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are,  and 
whither  we  are  tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to 
do,  and  how  to  do  it.  We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth 
year  since  a  policy  was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object 
and  confident  promise  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery 
agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that  policy  that 
agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly 
augmented.  In  my  opinion,  it  will  not  cease  until  a 
crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and  passed.  "A  house 
divided  against  itself  can  not  stand."  I  believe  this 
Government  can  not  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dis- 
solved— I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall — but  I  do 
expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all 
one  thing,  or  all  the  other.     Either  the  opponents  of 

^Rhodes,  Vol.  II.,  p.  431. 


28  SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,    ILLINOIS. 

slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it 
where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is 
in  course  of  ultimate  extinction;  or  its  advocates  will 
push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all 
the  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South. 

Have  we  no  tendency  to  the  latter  condition?  Let 
any  one  who  doubts  carefully  contemplate  that  now 
almost  complete  legal  combination — piece  of  machin- 
ery, so  to  speak — compounded  of  the  Nebraska  doctrine* 
and  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Let  him  consider  not 
only  what  work  the  machinery  is  adapted  to  do,  and 
how  well  adapted ;  but  also  let  him  study  the  history  of 
its  construction,  and  trace,  if  he  can,  or  rather  fail,  if  he 
can,  to  trace  the  evidences  of  design  and  concert  of 
action  among  its  chief  master- workers  from  the  begin- 
ning. 

The  new  year  of  1854  found  slavery  excluded  from 
more  than  half  the  States  by  State  Constitutions,  and 
from  most  of  the  national  territory  by  Congressional 
prohibition.  Four  days  later  commenced  the  struggle 
which  ended  in  repealing  that  Congressional  prohibi- 
tion. This  opened  all  the  national  territory  to  slavery, 
and  was  the  first  point  gained. 

But,  so  far,  Congress  only  had  acted ;  and  an  indorse- 
ment by  the  people,  real  or  apparent,  was  indispensable 
to  save  the  point  already  gained  and  give  chance  for 
more.     This  necessity  had  not  been  overlooked,  but  had 


*The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  approved  by  President  Pierce  May 
30,  1S54. 


SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,     ILLINOIS.  29 

been  provided  for,  as  well  as  might  be,  in  the  notable 
argument  of  "squatter  sovereignty,"  otherwise  called 
"sacred  right  of  self-government,"  which  latter 
phrase,  though  expressive  of  the  only  rightful  basis  of 
any  government,  was  so  perverted  in  this  attempted 
use  of  it  as  to  amount  to  just  this:  that  if  any  one  man 
choose  to  enslave  another,  no  third  man  shall  be 
allowed  to  object.  That  argument  was  incorporated 
into  the  Nebraska  Bill  itself,  in  the  language  which 
follows:  "It  being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this 
act  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State, 
nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom ;  but  to  leave  the  people 
thereof  perfectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their 
domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Then  opened  the  roar  of  loose  declamation  in  favor 
of  "squatter  sovereignty"  and  "sacred  right  of  self- 
government." 

"But,"  said  opposition  members,  "let  us  amend  the 
bill  so  as  to  expressly  declare  that  the  people  of  the 
territory  may  exclude  slavery."  "Not  we,"  said  the 
friends  of  the  measure;  and  down  they  voted  the 
amendment. 

While  the  Nebraska  Bill  was  passing  through  Con- 
gress, a  law  case  involving  the  question  of  a  negro's 
freedom,  by  reason  of  his  owner  having  voluntarily 
taken  him  first  into  a  free  State  and  then  a  territory 
covered  by  the  Congressional  prohibition,  and  held  him 
as  a  slave  for  a  long  time  in  each,  was  passing  through 


30  SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,    ILLINOIS. 

the  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  for  the  District  of  Missouri 
and  both  the  Nebraska  Bill  and  law  suit  were  brought 
to  a  decision  in  the  same  month  of  May,  1854.  The 
negro's  name  was  "Dred  Scott,"  which  name  now 
designates  the  decision  finally  made  in  the  case. 

Before  the  then  next  Presidential  election,  the  law 
case  came  to  and  was  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States ;  but  the  decision  of  it  was  deferred 
until  after  the  election.  Still,  before  the  election, 
Senator  Trumbull,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  requested 
the  leading  advocate  of  the  Nebraska  Bill  to  state  his 
opinion  whether  the  people  of  a  territory  can  constitu- 
tionally exclude  slavery  from  their  limits;  and  the 
latter  answered,  "That  is  a  question  for  the  Supreme 
Court." 

The  election  came.  Mr.  Buchanan  was  elected,  and 
the  indorsement,  such  as  it  was,  secured.  That  was 
the  second  point  gained.  The  indorsement,  however, 
fell  short  of  a  clear  popular  majority  by  nearly  four 
hundred  thousand  votes,  and  so,  perhaps,  was  not 
overwhelmingly  reliable  and  satisfactory.  The  out- 
going President,  in  his  last  annual  message,  as  impress- 
ively as  possible  echoed  back  upon  the  people  the 
weight  and  authority  of  the  indorsement. 

The  Supreme  Court  met  again;  did  not  announce 
their  decision,  but  ordered  a  re-argument.  The  Presi- 
dential inauguration  came,  and  still  no  decision  of  the 
court;  but  the  incoming  President  in  his  Inaugural 
Address  fervently  exhorted  the  people  to  abide  by  the 


SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,    ILLINOIS.  31 

forthcoming  decision,  whatever  it  might  be.     Then,  in 
a  few  days  came  the  decision. 

This  was  the  third  point  gained. 

The  reputed  author  of  the  Nebraska  Bill  finds  an 
early  occasion  to  make  a  speech  at  this  capitol  indors- 
ing the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  vehemently  denounc- 
ing all  opposition  to  it.  The  new  President,  too,  seizes 
an  early  occasion  to  indorse  and  strongly  construe  that 
decision,  and  to  express  his  astonishment  that  any 
different  view  had  ever  been  entertained ! 

At  length  a  squabble  springs  up  between  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  author  of  the  Nebraska  Bill,  on  the  mere 
question  of  fact,  whether  the  Lecompton  Constitution* 
was  or  was  not,  in  any  just  sense,  made  by  the  people  of 
Kansas;  and  in  that  quarrel  the  latter  declares  that  all 
he  wants  is  a  fair  vote  for  the  people,  and  that  he 
cares  not  whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up. 
I  do  not  understand  his  declaration  that  he  cares  not 
whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up  to  be 
intended  by  him  other  than  as  an  apt  definition  of  the 
policy  he  would  impress  upon  the  public  mind — the 
principle  for  which  he  declares  he  has  suffered  much, 
and  is  ready  to  suffer  to  the  end. 

And  well  may  he  cling  to  that  principle.     If  he  has 

any  parental  feeling,   well  may  he  cling  to  it.     That 

principle  is  the  only  shred  left  of  his  original  Nebraska 

*  The  State  Constitution  made  for  Kansas  by  the  pro-slavery 
men  of  the  State  in  1857.  It  was  adopted  by  them  "with  slavery" 
December  21,  of  that  year,  and  rejected  by  the  anti-slavery  men  of 
the  State,  January  4,  1858.  By  a  vote  of  the  whole  State  August 
3,  1858,  it  was  finally  rejected. 


32  SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,     ILLINOIS. 

doctrine.  Under  the  Dred  Scott  decision  "squatter 
sovereignty"  squatted  out  of  existence,  tumbled  down 
like  temporary  scaffolding, — like  the  mould  at  the 
foundry,  served  through  one  blast  and  fell  back  into 
loose  sand, — helped  to  carry  an  election,  and  then  was 
kicked  to  the  winds.  His  late  joint  struggle  with  the 
Republicans  against  the  Lecompton  Constitution 
involves  nothing  of  the  original  Nebraska  doctrine. 
That  struggle  was  made  on  a  point — the  right  of  a 
people  to  make  their  own  Constitution — upon  which  he 
and  the  Republicans  have  never  differed. 

The  several  points  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in 
connection  with  Senator  Douglas's  "care  not"  policy, 
constitute  the  piece  of  machinery  in  its  present  state  of 
advancement.  The  working  points  of  that  machinery 
are: 

(i)  That  no  negro  slave,  imported  as  such  from 
Africa,  and  no  descendant  of  such  slave,  can  ever  be 
a  citizen  of  any  State,  in  the  sense  of  that  term  as 
used  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

This  point  is  made  in  order  to  deprive  the  negro  in 
every  possible  event  of  the  benefit  of  this  provision 
of  the  United  States  Constitution  which  declares  that, 
"The  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several 
States." 

(2)  That,  "subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States, ' '  neither  Congress  nor  a  Territorial  Legislature 
can  exclude  slavery  from  any  United  States  Territory. 


SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,     ILLINOIS.  33 

This  point  is  made  in  order  that  individual  men  may 
fill  up  the  Territories  with  slaves,  without  danger  of 
losing  them  as  property,  and  thus  enhance  the  chances 
of  permanency  to  the  institution  through  all  the 
future. 

(3)  That  whether  the  holding  a  negro  in  actual 
slavery  in  a  free  State  makes  him  free  as  against 
the  holder,  the  United  States  courts  will  not  decide, 
but  will  leave  it  to  be  decided  by  the  courts  of  any 
slave  State  the  negro  may  be  forced  into  by  the 
master. 

This  point  is  made  not  to  be  pressed  immediately, 
but,  if  acquiesced  in  for  a  while,  and  apparently 
indorsed  by  the  people  at  an  election,  then  to  sustain 
the  logical  conclusion  that  what  Dred  Scott's  master 
might  lawfully  do  with  Dred  Scott  in  the  free  State  of 
Illinois,  every  other  master  may  lawfully  do  with  any 
other  one  or  one  thousand  slaves  in  Illinois  or  in  any 
other  free  State. 

Auxiliary  to  all  this,  and  working  hand  in  hand  with 
it,  the  Nebraska  doctrine,  or  what  is  left  of  it,  is  to 
educate  and  mould  public  opinion,  at  least  Northern 
public  opinion,  not  to  care  whether  slavery  is  voted 
down  or  voted  up.  This  shows  exactly  where  we  now 
are,  and  partially,  also,  whither  we  are  tending. 

It  will  throw  additional  light  on  the  latter,  to  go 
back  and  run  the  mind  over  the  string  of  historical 
facts  already  stated.  Several  things  will  now  appear 
less  dark  and  mysterious  than  they  did  when  they  were 


34  SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,     ILLINOIS. 

transpiring.  The  people  were  to  be  left  "perfectly 
free,"  "subject  only  to  the  Constitution."  What  the 
Constitution  had  to  do  with  it  outsiders  could  not  then 
see.  Plainly  enough  now,  it  was  an  exactly  fitted 
niche  for  the  Dred  Scott  decision  afterward  to  come  in, 
and  declare  that  perfect  freedom  of  the  people  to  be 
just  no  freedom  at  all.  Why  was  the  amendment 
expressly  declaring  the  right  of  the  people  to  exclude 
slavery  voted  down?  Plainly  enough  now,  the  adoption 
of  it  would  have  spoiled  the  niche  for  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  Why>was  the  court  decision  held  up?  Why 
even  a  Senator's  individual  opinion  withheld  till  after 
the  Presidential  election?  Plainly  enough  now,  the 
speaking  out  then  would  have  damaged  the  "perfectly 
free"  argument  upon  which  the  election  was  to  be 
carried.  Why  the  outgoing  President's  felicitation  on 
the  indorsement?  Why  the  delay  of  a  re-argument? 
Why  the  incoming  President's  advance  exhortation  in 
favor  of  the  decision?  These  things  look  like  the 
cautious  patting  and  petting  of  a  spirited  horse 
preparatory  to  mounting  him,  when  it  is  dreaded  that 
he  may  give  the  rider  a  fall.  And  why  the  hasty 
after-indorsement  of  the  decision,  by  the  President  and 
others? 

We  cannot  absolutely  know  that  all  these  exact 
adaptations  are  the  result  of  pre-concert.  But  when 
we  see  a  lot  of  framed  timbers,  different  portions  of 
which  we  know  have  been  gotten  out  at  different  times 
and     places     and    by    different    workmen, — Stephen, 


SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,     ILLINOIS.  35 

Franklin,  Roger,  and  James,  for  instance,* — and  when 
we  see  these  timbers  joined  together,  and  see  they 
exactly  make  the  frame  of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the 
tenons  and  mortices  exactly  fitting,  and  all  the  lengths 
and  proportions  of  the  different  pieces  exactly  adapted 
to  their  respective  places,  and  not  a  piece  too  many  or 
too  few,  not  omitting  even  scaffolding — or,  if  a  single 
piece  be  lacking,  we  see  the  place  in  the  frame  exactly 
fitted  and  prepared  to  yet  bring  such  piece  in — in  such  a 
case  we  find  it  impossible  not  to  believe  that  Stephen 
and  Franklin  and  Roger  and  James  all  understood  one 
another  from  the  beginning,  and  all  worked  upon  a 
common  plan  or  draft  drawn  up  before  the  first  blow 
was  struck. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that,  by  the  Nebraska 
bill,  the  people  of  a  State  as  well  as  Territory  were  to 
be  left  "perfectly  free,"  "subject  only  to  the  Constitu- 
tion." Why  mention  a  State?  They  were  legislating 
for  Territories,  and  not  for  or  about  States.  Certainly 
the  people  of  a  State  are  and  ought  to  be  subject  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  but  why  is  mention 
of  this  lugged  into  this  merely  territorial  law?  Why 
are  the  people  of  a  Territory  and  the  people  of  a  State 
therein  lumped  together,  and  their  relation  to  the 
Constitution  therein  treated  as  being  precisely  the 
same?  While  the  opinion  of  the  court,  by  Chief  Justice 
Taney,   in    the    Dred    Scott    case,   and    the    separate 


*  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Franklin  Pierce,  Roger  B.  Taney,  and 
James  Buchanan. 


36  SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,     ILLINOIS. 

opinions  of  all  the  concurring  judges,  expressly  declare 
that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  neither  per- 
mits Congress  nor  a  Territorial  Legislature  to  exclude 
slavery  from  any  United  States  Territory,  they  all 
omit  to  declare  whether  or  not  the  same  Constitution 
permits  a  State,  or  the  people  of  a  State,  to  exclude  it. 
Possibly,  this  was  a  mere  omission;  but  who  can  be 
quite  sure,  if  McLean  or  Curtis*  had  sought  to  get  into 
the  opinion  a  declaration  of  unlimited  power  in  the 
people  of  a  State  to  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits, 
just  as  Chase  and  Mace  sought  to  get  such  declaration, 
in  behalf  of  the  people  of  a  Territory,  into  the 
Nebraska  bill — I  ask,  who  can  be  quite  sure  that  it 
would  not  have  been  voted  down,  in  the  one  case  as  it 
had  been  in  the  other?  The  nearest  approach  to  the 
point  of  declaring  the  power  of  a  State  over  slavery,  is 
made  by  Judge  Nelson.  He  approaches  it  more  than 
once,  using  the  precise  idea,  and  almost  the  language 
too,  of  the  Nebraska  Act.  On  one  occasion  his  exact 
language  is:  "except  in  cases  where  the  power  is 
restrained  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the 
law  of  the  State  is  supreme  over  the  subject  of  slavery 
within  its  jurisdiction."  In  what  cases  the  power  of 
the  State  is  so  restrained  by  the  United  States  Consti- 
tution is  left  an  open  question,  precisely  as  the  same 
question  as  to  the  restraint  on  the  power  of  the  Terri- 
tories was  left  open  in  the  Nebraska  Act.     Put  this  and 


*  McLean,  Curtis  and  Nelson,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  at  this  time. 


SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,    ILLINOIS.  37 

that  together,  and  we  have  another  nice  little  niche, 
which  we  may,  ere  long,  see  filled  with  another 
Supreme  Court  decision,  declaring  that  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  does  not  permit  a  State  to 
exclude  slavery  from  its  limits.  And  this  may  espe- 
cially be  expected  if  the  doctrine  of  "care  not  whether 
slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up"  shall  gain  upon 
the  public  mind  sufficiently  to  give  promise  that  such  a 
decision  can  be  maintained  when  made. 

Such  a  decision  is  all  that  slavery  now  lacks  of  being 
alike  lawful  in  all  the  States.  Welcome,  or  unwel- 
come, such  decision  is  probably  coming,  and  will  soon 
be  upon  us,  unless  the  power  of  the  present  political 
dynasty  shall  be  met  and  overthrown.  We  shall  lie 
down  pleasantly  dreaming  that  the  people  of  Missouri 
are  on  the  verge  of  making  their  State  free,  and  we 
shall  awake  to  the  reality  instead  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  made  Illinois  a  slave  State.  To  meet  and 
overthrow  the  power  of  that  dynasty  is  the  work  now 
before  all  those  who  would  prevent  that  consumma- 
tion. That  is  what  we  have  to  do.  How  can  we 
best  do  it? 

There  are  those  who  denounce  us  openly  to  their 
own  friends,  and  yet  whisper  us  softly  that  Senator 
Douglas  is  the  aptest  instrument  there  is  with  which  to 
effect  that  object.  They  do  not  tell  us,  nor  has  he  told 
us,  that  he  wishes  any  such  object  to  be  effected. 
They  wish  us  to  infer  all  from  the  facts  that  he  now 
has   a  little  quarrel    with    the    present    head  of    the 


38  Speech    at  Springfield,  Illinois. 

dynasty ;  and  that  he  has  regularly  voted  with  us  on  a 
single  point  upon  which  he  and  we  have  never  differed. 
They  remind  us  that  he  is  a  very  great  man,  and  that 
the  largest  of  us  are  very  small  ones.  Let  this  be 
granted.  But  "a  living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead 
lion."  Judge  Douglas,  if  not  a  dead  lion  for  this 
work,  is  at  least  a  caged  and  toothless  one.  How  can 
he  oppose  the  advances  of  slavery?  He  don't  care 
anything  about  it.  His  avowed  mission  is  impressing 
the  "public  heart"  to  care  nothing  about  it.  A  lead- 
ing Douglas  Democrat  newspaper  thinks  Douglas's 
superior  talent  will  be  needed  to  resist  the  revival  of 
the  African  slave-trade.  Does  Douglas  believe  an 
effort  to  revive  that  trade  is  approaching?  He  has  not 
said  so.  Does  he  really  think  so?  But  if  it  is,  how 
can  he  resist  it?  For  years  he  has  labored  to  prove  it 
a  sacred  right  of  white  men  to  take  negro  slaves  into 
the  new  Territories.  Can  he  possibly  show  that  it  is  less 
a  sacred  right  to  buy  them  where  they  can  be  bought 
cheapest?  And  unquestionably  they  can  be  bought 
cheaper  in  Africa  than  in  Virginia.  He  has  done  all  in 
his  power  to  reduce  the  whole  question  of  slavery  to 
one  of  a  mere  right  of  property;  and,  as  such,  how  can 
he  oppose  the  foreign  slave-trade?  How  can  he  refuse 
that  trade  in  that  "property"  shall  be  "perfectly  free," 
unless  he  does  it  as  a  protection  to  the  home  produc- 
tion? And  as  the  home  producers  will  probably  not 
ask  the  protection,  he  will  be  wholly  without  a  ground 
of  opposition. 


SPEECH    AT    SPRINGFIELD,    ILLINOIS.  39 

Senator  Douglas  holds,  we  know,  that  a  man  may 
rightfully  be  wiser  to-day  than  he  was  yesterday — that 
he  may  rightfully  change  when  he  finds  himself  wrong. 
But  can  we  for  that  reason  run  ahead,  and  infer  that 
he  will  make  any  particular  change  of  which  he  him- 
self has  given  no  intimation?  Can  we  safely  base  our 
action  upon  any  such  vague  inferences?  Now,  as  ever, 
I  wish  not  to  misrepresent  Judge  Douglas's  position, 
question  his  motives,  or  do  aught  that  can  be  person- 
ally offensive  to  him.  Whenever,  if  ever,  he  and  we 
can  come  together  on  principle,  so  that  our  great  cause 
may  have  assistance  from  his  great  ability,  I  hope  to 
have  interposed  no  adventitious  obstacle.  But  clearly, 
he  is  not  now  with  us — he  does  not  pretend  to  be — he 
does  not  promise  ever  to  be. 

Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to,  and  conducted 
by,  its  own  undoubted  friends — those  whose  hands  are 
free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work,  who  do  care  for  the 
result.  Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of  the  nation 
mustered  over  thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  We 
did  this  under  the  single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a 
common  danger,  with  every  external  circumstance 
against  us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and  even  hostile 
elements,  we  gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and  formed 
and  fought  the  battle  through,  under  the  constant  hot 
fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud,  and  pampered  enemy.  Did 
we  brave  all  then  to  falter  now? — now,  when  that 
same  enemy  is  wavering,  dissevered,  and  belligerent? 
The  result  is  not  doubtful.     We  shall  not  fail — if  we 


40  LINCOLN  S    RULE    OF    POLITICAL    ACTION. 

stand  firm,  we  shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may 
accelerate  or  mistakes  delav  it,  but,  sooner  or  later,  the 
victory  is  sure  to  come. 


LINCOLN'S    RULE    OF    POLITICAL    ACTION. 

Lincoln's  whole  life  was  a  calculation  of  the  law  of 
forces  and  ultimate  results.  The  whole  world  to  him 
was  a  question  of  cause  and  effect.  He  believed 
the  results  to  which  certain  causes  tended ;  he  did  not 
believe  that  those  results  could  be  materially  hastened 
or  impeded.  His  whole  political  history,  especially 
since  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question,  has  been 
based  upon  this  theory.  He  believed  from  the  first,  I 
think,  that  the  agitation  of  slavery  would  produce  its 
overthrow,  and  he  acted  upon  the  result  as  though  it 
were  present  from  the  beginning.  His  tactics  were  to 
get  himself  into  the  right  place  and  remain  there  still, 
until  events  would  find  him  in  that  place.  This  course 
of  action  led  him  to  say  and  do  things  which  could  not 
be  understood  when  considered  in  reference  to  the 
immediate  surroundings  in  which  they  were  done  or 
said.  You  will  remember,  in  his  campaign  against 
Douglas  in  1858,  the  first  ten  lines  of  the  first  speech 
he  made  defeated  him.  The  sentiment  of  the  "house 
divided  against  itself"  seemed  wholly  inappropriate. 
It  was  a  speech  made  at  the  commencement  of  a  cam- 
paign, and  apparently  made  for  the  campaign.     View- 


LINCOLN'S    RULE    OF    POLITICAL    ACTION.  41 

ing  it  in  this  light  alone,  nothing  could  have  been  more 
unfortunate  or  inappropriate.  It  was  saying  just  the 
wrong  thing ;  yet  he  saw  it  was  an  abstract  truth,  and 
standing  by  the  speech  would  ultimately  find  him  in 
the  right  place.  I  was  inclined  at  the  time  to  believe 
these  words  were  hastily  and  inconsiderately  uttered, 
but  subsequent  facts  have  convinced  me  they  were 
deliberate  and  had  been  matured.     .     . 

In  the  summer  of  1859,  when  he  was  dining  with  a 
party  of  his  intimate  friends  at  Bloomington,  the  sub- 
ject of  his  Springfield  speech  was  discussed.  We  all 
insisted  it  was  a  great  mistake,  but  he  justified  himself, 
and  finally  said,  "Well,  gentlemen,  you  may  think 
that  speech  was  a  mistake,  but  I  never  have  believed  it 
was,  and  you  will  see  the  day  when  you  will  consider 
it  was  the  wisest  thing  I  ever  said." 

He  never  believed  in  political  combinations,  and 
consequently,  whether  an  individual  man  or  class  of 
men  supported  or  opposed  him,  never  made  any 
difference  in  his  feelings,  or  his  opinions  of  his  own 
success.  If  he  was  elected,  he  seemed  to  believe  that 
no  person  or  class  of  persons  could  ever  have  defeated 
him,  and  if  defeated,  he  believed  nothing  could  ever 
have  elected  him.  Hence,  when  he  was  a  candidate, 
he  never  wanted  anything  done  for  him  in  the  line  of 
political  combination  or  management.  He  seemed  to 
want  to  let  the  whole  subject  alone,  and  for  everybody 
else  to  do  the  same.     .     .     . 


42  LINCOLN    AS    AN    ORATOR. 

He  saw  that  the  pressure  of  a   campaign  was  the 

external   force   coercing  the   party  into  unity.      If  it 

failed  to  produce  that  result,  he  believed  any  individual 

effort  would  also  fail.     If  the  desired  result  followed, 

he  considered  it  attributable  to  the  great  cause,  and 

not  aided  by  the  lesser  ones.      He  sat  down  in  his 

chair  in  Springfield  and  made  himself  the  Mecca  to 

which  all  politicians  made  pilgrimages.     He  told  them 

all  a  story,  said  nothing,  and  sent  them  away. 

Leonard  Swett. 
From  "Herndon's  Life  of  Lincoln." 


LINCOLN   AS   AN   ORATOR. 

A  brief  description  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  appearance  on 
the  stump  and  of  his  manner  when  speaking  may  not 
be  without  interest.  When  standing  erect  he  was  six 
feet  four  inches  high.  He  was  lean  in  flesh  and 
ungainly  in  figure.  Aside  from  the  sad,  pained  look 
due  to  habitual  melancholy,  his  face  had  no  character- 
istic or  fixed  expression.  He  was  thin  through  the 
chest,  and  hence  slightly  stoop-shouldered.  When  he 
arose  to  address  courts,  juries,  or  crowds  of  people,  his 
body  inclined  forward  to  a  slight  degree.  At  first  he 
was  very  awkward,  and  it  seemed  a  real  labor  to  adjust 
himself  to  his  surroundings.  He  struggled  for  a  time 
under  a  feeling  of  apparent  diffidence  and  sensitive- 
ness, and  these   only  added  to  his  awkwardness.      I 


LINCOLN    AS    AN    ORATOR.  43 

have  often  seen  and  sympathized  with  Mr.   Lincoln 
during  these  moments.     When  he  began  speaking,  his 
voice  was  shrill,  piping,  and  unpleasant.     His  manner, 
his  attitude,  his  dark,  yellow  face,  wrinkled  and  dry, 
his    oddity  of  pose,  his   diffident   movements — every- 
thing seemed  to  be  against  him,  but  only  for  a  short 
time.     After   having   arisen,  he  generally  placed   his 
hands   behind  him,   the  back  of  his  left  hand  in  the 
palm    of   his    right,    the   thumb    and   fingers    of   his 
right  hand  clasped  around  the  left  arm  at  the  wrist. 
For  a  few  moments  he  played  the  combination  of  awk- 
wardness,  sensitiveness,   and  diffidence.      As  he  pro- 
ceeded he  became  somewhat  animated,  and  to  keep  in 
harmony  with  his  growing  warmth  his  hands  relaxed 
their  grasp  and  fell  to  his  side.     Presently  he  clasped 
them  in  front  of  him,   interlocking  his    fingers,   one 
thumb  meanwhile  chasing  another.     His  speech  now 
requiring  more  emphatic  utterance,  his  fingers  unlocked 
and  his  hands  fell   apart.     His  left  arm  was  thrown 
behind,  the  back  of  his  hand  resting  against  his  body, 
his  right  hand  seeking  his  side.     By  this  time  he  had 
gained  sufficient  composure,  and  his  real  speech  began. 
He  did  not  gesticulate  as  much  with  his  hands  as  with 
his  head.     He  used  the  latter  frequently,  throwing  it 
with  vim  this  way  and  that.     This  movement  was  a 
significant  one  when  he  sought  to  enforce  his  state- 
ment.     It   sometimes  came  with  a  quick  jerk,   as  if 
throwing  off  electric  sparks  into  combustible  material. 
He  never  sawed  the  air  nor  rent  space  into  tatters  and 


44  LINCOLN    AS    AN    ORATOR. 

rags,  as  some  orators  do.  He  never  acted  for  stage 
effect.  He  was  cool,  considerate,  reflective — in  time 
self-possessed  and  self-reliant.  His  style  was  clear, 
terse,  and  compact.  In  argument  he  was  logical, 
demonstrative,  and  fair.  He  was  careless  of  his  dress, 
and  his  clothes,  instead  of  fitting  neatly  as  did  the 
garments  of  Douglas  on  the  latter's  well-rounded  form, 
hung  loosely  on  his  giant  frame.  As  he  moved  along 
in  his  speech  he  became  freer  and  less  uneasy  in  his 
movements;  to  that  extent  he  was  graceful.  He  had 
a  perfect  naturalness,  a  strong  individuality;  and  to 
that  extent  he  was  dignified.  He  despised  glitter, 
show,  set  forms,  and  shams.  He  spoke  with  effective- 
ness and  to  move  the  judgment  as  well  as  the  emotions 
of  men.  There  was  a  world  of  meaning  and  emphasis 
in  the  long,  bony  finger  of  his  right  hand  as  he  dotted 
the  ideas  on  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  Sometimes,  to 
express  joy  or  pleasure,  he  would  raise  both  hands  at 
an  angle  of  about  fifty  degrees,  the  palms  upward,  as 
if  desirous  of  embracing  the  spirit  of  that  which  he 
loved.  If  the  sentiment  was  one  of  detestation — 
denunciation  of  slavery,  for  example — both  arms, 
thrown  upward  and  fists  clenched,  swept  through  the 
air,  and  he  expressed  an  execration  that  was  truly 
sublime.  This  was  one  of  his  most  effective  gestures, 
and  signified  most  vividly  a  fixed  determination  to  drag 
down  the  object  of  his  hatred  and  trample  it  in  the 
dust.  He  always  stood  squarely  on  his  feet,  toe  even 
with   toe;    that  is,  he  never  put  one  foot  before  the 


SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS.  45 

other.  He  neither  touched  nor  leaned  on  anything-  for 
support.  He  made  but  few  changes  in  his  positions 
and  attitudes.  He  never  ranted,  never  walked  back- 
ward and  forward  on  the  platform.  To  ease  his  arms 
he  frequently  caught  hold,  with  his  left  hand,  of  the 
lapel  of  his  coat,  keeping  his  thumb  upright  and  leav- 
ing his  right  hand  free  to  gesticulate.  The  designer 
of  the  monument  recently  erected  in  Chicago  has 
happily  caught  him  in  just  this  attitude.  As  he  pro- 
ceeded with  his  speech  the  exercise  of  his  vocal  organs 
altered  somewhat  the  tone  of  his  voice.  It  lost,  in  a 
measure,  its  former  acute  and  shrilling  pitch,  and  mel- 
lowed into  a  more  harmonious  and  pleasant  sound. 
His  form  expanded,  and,  notwithstanding  the  sunken 
breast,   he  rose  up  a  splendid  and  imposing    figure. 

Such  was  Lincoln  the  orator. 

Wm.  H.  Herndon. 
From  "Life  of  Lincoln." 


SPEECH  IN  REPLY  TO    SENATOR   DOUGLAS. 

{Delivered  at  Chicago,  fuly  10,  i£j£.) 

My  Fellow-Citizens: — On  yesterday  evening,  upon 
the  occasion  of  the  reception  given  to  Senator  Douglas, 
I  was  furnished  with  a  seat  very  convenient  for  hear- 
ing him,  and  was  otherwise  very  courteously  treated 
by  him  and  his  friends,  for  which  I  thank  him  and 
them.  During  the  course  of  his  remarks  my  name  was 
mentioned  in  such  a  way  as,  I  suppose,  renders  it  at 


46  SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS. 

least  not  improper  that  I  should  make  some  sort  of 
reply  to  him.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  follow  him  in  the 
precise  order  in  which  he  addressed  the  assembled 
multitude  upon  that  occasion,  though  I  shall  perhaps 
do  so  in  the  main. 

Popular  sovereignty!  everlasting  popular  sover- 
eignty! Let  us  for  a  moment  inquire  into  this  vast 
matter  of  popular  sovereignty.  What  is  popular 
sovereignty?  We  recollect  that  in  an  early  period  in 
the  history  of  this  struggle,  there  was  another  name 
for  the  same  thing, — Squatter  Sovereignty.  It  was  not 
exactly  Popular  Sovereignty,  but  Squatter  Sovereignty. 
What  do  those  terms  mean?  What  do  those  terms 
mean  when  used  now?  And  vast  credit  is  taken  by 
our  friend  the  Judge  in  regard  to  his  support  of  it, 
when  he  declares  the  last  years  of  his  life  have  been, 
and  all  the  future  years  of  his  life  shall  be,  devoted  to 
this  matter  of  popular  sovereignty.  What  is  it?  Why, 
it  is  the  sovereignty  of  the  people !  What  was  Squatter 
Sovereignty?  I  suppose  if  it  had  any  significance  at 
all,  it  was  the  right  of  the  people  to  govern  them- 
selves, to  be  sovereign  in  their  own  affairs  while  they 
wrere  squatted  down  in  a  country  not  their  own,  while 
they  had  squatted  on  a  Territory  that  did  not  belong  to 
them,  in  the  sense  that  a  State  belongs  to  the  people 
who  inhabit  it, — when  it  belonged  to  the  nation;  such 
right  to  govern  themselves  was  called  "Squatter 
Sovereignty. ' ' 

Now,  I  wish  you  to  mark.     What  has  become  of  that 


SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO   SENATOR    DOUGLAS.  47 

Squatter  Sovereignty?  What  has  become  of  it?  Can 
you  get  anybody  to  tell  you  now  that  the  people  of  a 
Territory  have  any  authority  to  govern  themselves,  in 
regard  to  this  mooted  question  of  slavery,  before  they 
form  a  State  Constitution?  No  such  thing  at  all, 
although  there  is  a  general  running  fire,  and  although 
there  has  been  a  hurrah  made  in  every  speech  on  that 
side,  assuming  that  policy  had  given  the  people  of  a 
Territory  the  right  to  govern  themselves  upon  this 
question ;  yet  the  point  is  dodged.  To-day  it  has  been 
decided — no  more  than  a  year  ago  it  was  decided  by 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  is 
insisted  upon  to-day — that  the  people  of  a  Territory 
have  no  right  to  exclude  slavery  from  a  Territory ;  that 
if  any  one  man  chooses  to  take  slaves  into  a  Territory, 
all  of  the  rest  of  the  people  have  no  right  to  keep  them 
out.  This  being  so,  and  this  decision  being  made  one 
of  the  points  that  the  Judge  approved,  and  one  in  the 
approval  of  which  he  says  he  means  to  keep  me  down, 
— put  me  down  I  should  not  say,  for  I  have  never  been 
up.  He  says  he  is  in  favor  of  it,  and  sticks  to  it,  and 
expects  to  win  his  battle  on  that  decision,  which  says 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  Squatter  Sovereignty, 
but  that  any  one  man  may  take  slaves  into  a  Territory, 
and  all  the  other  men  in  the  Territory  may  be  opposed 
to  it,  and  yet,  by  reason  of  the  Constitution,  they  can- 
not prohibit  it.  When  that  is  so,  how  much  is  left  of 
this  vast  matter  of  Squatter  Sovereignty  I  should  like 
to  know?     [A  voice — "It  is  all  gone."] 


48  SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS. 

Again,  when  we  get  to  the  question  of  the  right  of 
the  people  to  form  a  State  Constitution  as  they  please, 
to  form  it  with  slavery  or  without  slavery, — if  that  is 
anything  new,  I  confess  I  don't  know  it.  Has  there 
ever  been  a  time  when  anybody  said  that  any  other 
than  the  people  of  a  Territory  itself  should  form  a 
Constitution?  What  is  now  in  it  that  Judge  Douglas 
should  have  fought  several  years  of  his  life,  and 
pledged  himself  to  fight  all  the  remaining  years  of  his 
life  for?  Can  Judge  Douglas  find  anybody  on  earth 
that  said  that  anybody  else  should  form  a  Constitution 
for  a  people?  [A  voice — "Yes."  Well,  I  should  like 
you  to  name  him ,  I  should  like  to  know  who  he  was. 
[Same  voice — "John  Calhoun."] 

No,  Sir,  I  never  heard  of  even  John  Calhoun  saying 
such  a  thing.  He  insisted  on  the  same  principle  as 
Judge  Douglas;  but  his  mode  of  applying  it,  in  fact, 
was  wrong.  It  is  enough  for  my  purpose  to  ask  this 
crowd  when  a  Republican  ever  said  anything  against 
it.  They  never  said  anything  against  it,  but  they  have 
constantly  spoken  for  it;  and  whosoever  will  under- 
take to  examine  the  platform,  and  the  speeches  of 
responsible  men  of  the  party,  and  of  irresponsible  men, 
too,  if  you  please,  will  be  unable  to  find  one  word  from 
anybody  in  the  Republican  ranks  opposed  to  that 
Popular  Sovereignty  which  Judge  Douglas  thinks  that 
he  has  invented.  I  suppose  that  Judge  Douglas  will 
claim,  in  a  little  while,  that  he  is  the  inventor  of  the 
idea  that  the  people  should  govern  themselves;    that 


SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS.  49 

nobody  ever  thought  of  such  a  thing  until  he  brought  it 
forward.  We  do  not  remember,  I  suppose,  that  in  that 
old  Declaration  of  Independence  it  is  said  that,  "We 
hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  inalienable  rights;  that  among  these  are 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  to  se- 
cure these  rights,  governments  are  instituted  among 
men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed. "  There  is  the  origin  of  the  Popular 
Sovereignty.  Who,  then,  shall  come  in  at  this  day  and 
claim  that  he  invented  it? 

Judge  Douglas  made  two  points  upon  my  recent 
speech  at  Springfield.  He  says  they  are  to  be  the 
issues  of  this  campaign.  The  first  one  of  these  points 
he  bases  upon  the  language  in  a  speech  which  I  deliv- 
ered at  Springfield,  which  I  believe  I  can  quote  cor- 
rectly from  memory.  I  said  there  that,  "We  are  now 
far  on  in  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  instituted  for 
the  avowed  object  and  with  the  confident  promise  of 
putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation ;  under  the  opera- 
tion of  that  policy,  that  agitation  had  not  only  not 
ceased,  but  had  constantly  augmented."  "I  believe  it 
will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached 
and  passed.  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand.  I  believe  this  Government  cannot  endure  per- 
manently, half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect 
the  Union  to  be  dissolved," — I  am  quoting  from  my 
speech, — "I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall,  but  I  do 


50  SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS. 

expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all 
one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of 
slavery  will  arrest  the  spread  of  it  and  place  it  where 
the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in 
the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will 
push  it  forward  until  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all 
the  States,  North  as  well  as  South." 

In  this  paragraph,  which  I  have  quoted  in  your 
hearing,  and  to  which  I  ask  the  attention  of  all,  Judge 
Douglas  thinks  he  discovers  great  political  heresy.  I 
want  your  attention  particularly  to  what  he  has 
inferred  from  it.  He  says  I  am  in  favor  of  making  all 
the  States  of  this  Union  uniform  in  all  their  internal 
regulations;  that  in  all  their  domestic  concerns  I  am 
in  favor  of  making  them  entirely  uniform.  He  draws 
this  inference  from  the  language  I  have  quoted  to  you. 
He  says  that  I  am  in  favor  of  making  war  by  the  North 
upon  the  South  for  the  extinction  of  slavery ,  that  I  am 
also  in  favor  of  inviting  (as  he  expresses  it)  the  South 
to  a  war  upon  the  North  for  the  purpose  of  nationaliz- 
ing slavery.  Now,  it  is  singular  enough,  if  you  will 
carefully  read  that  passage  over,  that  I  did  not  say  that  I 
was  in  favor  of  anything  in  it.  I  only  said  what  I 
expected  would  take  place.  I  made  a  prediction  only, 
— it  may  have  been  a  foolish  one,  perhaps.  I  did  not 
even  say  that  I  desired  that  slavery  should  be  put  in 
course  of  ultimate  extinction.  I  do  say  so  now,  how- 
ever, so  there  need  be  no  longer  any  difficulty  about 
that.     It  may  be  written  down  in  the  next  speech. 


SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS.  5 1 

Gentlemen,  Judge  Douglas  informed  you  that  this 
speech  of  mine  was  probably  carefully  prepared.  I 
admit  that  it  was.  I  am  not  master  of  language;  I 
have  not  a  fine  education;  I  am  not  capable  of  enter- 
ing into  a  disquisition  upon  dialects,  as  I  believe  you 
call  it ;  but  I  do  not  believe  the  language  I  employed 
bears  any  such  construction  as  Judge  Douglas  puts 
upon  it.  But  I  don't  care  about  a  quibble  in  regard  to 
words.  I  know  what  I  meant,  and  I  will  not  leave 
this  crowd  in  doubt,  if  I  can  explain  it  to  them,  what  I 
really  meant  in  the  use  of  that  paragraph. 

I  am  not,  in  the  first  place,  unaware  that  this  Govern- 
ment has  endured  eighty-two  years  half  slave  and  half 
free.  I  know  that.  I  am  tolerably  well  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  the  country,  and  I  know  that  it  has 
endured  eighty-two  years  half  slave  and  half  free.  I 
believe — and  that  is  what  I  meant  to  allude  to  there — I 
believe  it  has  endured,  because  during  all  that  time, 
until  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  the  public 
mind  did  rest  all  the  time  in  the  belief  that  slavery 
was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  That  was  what 
gave  us  the  rest  that  we  had  through  that  period  of 
eighty-two  years, — at  least,  so  I  believe.  I  have 
always  hated  slavery,  I  think,  as  much  as  any  Aboli- 
tionist,— I  have  been  an  Old  Line  Whig, — I  have 
always  hated  it ;  but  I  have  always  been  quiet  about  it 
until  this  new  era  of  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska 
bill  began.  I  always  believed  that  everybody  was 
against  it,  and  that  it  was  in  course  of  ultimate  ext^c-o* 


\* 


52  SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS. 

tion.  The  great  mass  of  the  Nation  have  rested  in  the 
belief  that  slavery  was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinc- 
tion.    They  had  reason  so  to  believe. 

The  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  its  attendant 
history  led  the  people  to  believe  so;  and  that  such  was 
the  belief  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  Why 
did  those  old  men,  about  the  time  of  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  decree  that  slavery  should  not  go  into 
the  new  territory,  where  it  had  not  already  gone? 
Why  declare  that  within  twenty  years  the  African 
Slave  Trade,  by  which  slaves  are  supplied,  might  be 
cut  off  by  Congress?  Why  were  all  these  acts?  I 
might  enumerate  more  of  these  acts;  but  enough. 
What  were  they  but  a  clear  indication  that  the  framers 
of  the  Constitution  intended  and  expected  the  ultimate 
extinction  of  that  institution?  And  now,  when  I  say, 
as  I  said  in  my  speech  that  Judge  Douglas  has  quoted 
from,  when  I  say  that  I  think  the  opponents  of  slavery 
will  resist  the  farther  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where 
the  public  mind  shall  rest  with  the  belief  that  it  is  in 
course  of  ultimate  extinction,  I  only  mean  to  say  that 
they  will  place  it  where  the  founders  of  this  Govern- 
ment originally  placed  it. 

I  have  said  a  hundred  times,  and  I  have  no  inclina- 
tion to  take  it  back,  that  I  believe  there  is  no  right, 
and  ought  to  be  no  inclination,  in  the  people  of  the 
Free  States  to  enter  into  the  Slave  States,  and  inter- 
fere with  the  question  of  slavery  at  all.  I  have  said 
that  always;    Judge  Douglas  has  heard  me  say  it,  if 


SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS.  53 

not  quite  a  hundred  times,  at  least  as  good  as  a  hundred 
times;  and  when  it  is  said  that  I  am  in  favor  of  inter- 
fering with  slavery  where  it  exists,  I  know  that  it  is 
unwarranted  by  anything  I  have  ever  intended,  and,  as 
I  believe,  by  anything  I  have  ever  said.  If,  by  any 
means,  I  have  ever  used  language  which  could  fairly 
be  so  construed  (as,  however,  I  believe  I  never  have), 
I  now  correct  it. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  inference  that  Judge  Douglas 
draws,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  setting  the  sections  at  war 
with  one  another.  I  know  that  I  never  meant  any 
such  thing,  and  I  believe  that  no  fair  mind  can  infer 
any  such  thing  from  anything  I  have  ever  said. 

Now,  in  relation  to  his  inference  that  I  am  in  favor 
of  a  general  consolidation  of  all  the  local  institutions  of 
the  various  States.  I  will  attend  to  that  for  a  little 
while,  and  try  to  inquire,  if  I  can,  how  on  earth  it 
could  be  that  any  man  could  draw  such  an  inference 
from  anything  I  said.  I  have  said,  very  many  times, 
in  Judge  Douglas's  hearing,  that  no  man  believed 
more  than  I  in  the  principle  of  self-government;  that 
it  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  my  ideas  of  just  govern- 
ment, from  beginning  to  end.  I  have  denied  that  his 
use  of  that  term  applies  properly.  But  for  the  thing 
itself,  I  deny  that  any  man  has  ever  gone  ahead  of  me 
in  his  devotion  to  the  principle,  whatever  he  may  have 
done  in  efficiency  in  advocating  it.  I  think  that  I  have 
said  it  in  your  hearing,  that  I  believe  each  individual 
is  naturally  entitled  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  himself 


54  SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS. 

and  the  fruit  of  his  labor,  so  far  as  it  in  no  wise  inter- 
feres with  any  other  man's  rights;  that  each  com- 
munity, as  a  State,  has  a  right  to  do  exactly  as  it 
pleases  with  all  the  concerns  within  that  State  that 
interfere  with  the  right  of  no  other  State,  and  that  the 
General  Government,  upon  principle,  has  no  right  to 
interfere  with  anything  other  than  that  general  class  of 
things  that  does  concern  the  whole.  I  have  said  that 
at  all  times.  I  have  said,  as  illustrations,  that  I  do 
not  believe  in  the  right  of  Illinois  to  interfere  with  the 
cranberry  laws  of  Indiana,  the  oyster  laws  of  Virginia, 
or  the  liquor  laws  of  Maine.  I  have  said  these  things 
over  and  over  again,  and  I  repeat  them  here  as  my 
sentiments.     .     . 

A  little  now  on  the  other  point, — the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  Another  of  the  issues  he  says  that  is  to  be 
made  with  me  is  upon  his  devotion  to  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  and  my  opposition  to  it. 

I  have  expressed  heretofore,  and  I  now  repeat,  my 
opposition  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision ;  but  I  should  be 
allowed  to  state  the  nature  of  that  opposition,  and  I 
ask  your  indulgence  while  I  do  so.  What  is  fairly 
implied  by  the  term  Judge  Douglas  has  used,  "resist- 
ance to  the  decision"?  I  do  not  resist  it.  If  I  wanted 
to  take  Dred  Scott  from  his  master,  I  would  be  inter- 
fering with  property,  and  that  terrible  difficulty  that 
Judge  Douglas  speaks  of,  of  interfering  with  property, 
would  arise.  But  I  am  doing  no  such  thing  as  that, 
but  all  that  I  am  doing  is  refusing  to  obey  it  as  a  polit- 


SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS.  55 

ical  rule.  If  I  were  in  Congress,  and  a  vote  should 
come  up  on  a  question  whether  slavery  should  be 
prohibited  in  a  new  Territory,  in  spite  of  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  I  would  vote  that  it  should. 

That  is  what  I  would  do.  Judge  Douglas  said  last 
night  that  before  the  decision  he  might  advance  his 
opinion  and  it  might  be  contrary  to  the  decision  when 
it  was  made ;  but  after  it  was  made  he  would  abide 
by  it  until  it  was  reversed.  Just  so!  We  let  this 
property  abide  by  the  decision,  but  we  will  try  to 
reverse  that  decision.  [Loud  applause.]  We  will  try 
to  put  it  where  Judge  Douglas  will  not  object,  for  he 
says  he  will  obey  it  until  it  is  reversed.  Somebody 
has  to  reverse  that  decision,  since  it  was  made,  and  we 
mean  to  reverse  it,  and  we  mean  to  do  it  peaceably. 

What  are  the  uses  of  decisions  of  courts?  They 
have  two  uses.  As  rules  of  property  they  have  two 
uses.  First,  they  decide  upon  the  question  before  the 
court.  They  decide  in  this  case  that  Dred  Scott  is  a 
slave.  Nobody  resists  that.  Not  only  that,  but  they 
say  to  everybody  else,  that  persons  standing  just  as 
Dred  Scott  stands,  is  as  he  is.  That  is,  they  say  that 
when  a  question  comes  up  upon  another  person,  it  will 
be  so  decided  again,  unless  the  court  decides  in  another 
way,  unless  the  court  overrules  its  decision.  Well,  we 
mean  to  do  what  we  can  to  have  the  court  decide  the 
other  way.     That  is  one  thing  we  mean  to  try  to  do. 

We  were  often, — more  than  once,  at  least, — in  the 
course  of  Judge  Douglas's  speech  last  night,  reminded 


56  SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS. 

that  this  Government  was  made  for  white  men ;  that  he 
believed  it  was  made  for  white  men.  Well,  that  is 
putting  it  into  a  shape  in  which  no  one  wants  to  deny 
it;  but  the  Judge  then  goes  into  his  passion  for  draw- 
ing inferences  that  are  not  warranted.  I  protest,  now 
and  forever,  against  that  counterfeit  logic  which  pre- 
sumes that  because  I  did  not  want  a  negro  woman  for 
a  slave,  I  do  necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  My 
understanding  is  that  I  need  not  have  her  for  either ; 
but,  as  God  made  us  separate,  we  can  leave  one  another 
alone,  and  do  one  another  much  good  thereby.  There 
are  white  men  enough  to  marry  all  the  white  women, 
and  enough  black  men  to  marry  all  the  black  women ; 
and  in  God's  name  let  them  be  so  married.  The  Judge 
regales  us  with  the  terrible  enormities  that  take  place 
by  the  mixture  of  races;  that  the  inferior  race  bears 
the  superior  down.  Why,  Judge,  if  we  do  not  let 
them  get  together  in  the  Territories  they  won't  mix 
there. 

We  are  now  a  mighty  nation ;  we  are  thirty,  or  about 
thirty  millions  of  people,  and  we  own  and  inhabit 
about  one-fifteenth  part  of  the  dry  land  of  the  whole 
earth.  We  run  our  memory  back  over  the  pages  of 
history  for  about  eighty-two  years,  and  we  discover 
that  we  were  then  a  very  small  people  in  point  of  num- 
bers, vastly  inferior  to  what  we  are  now,  with  a  vastly 
less  extent  of  country,  with  vastly  less  of  everything 
we  deem  desirable  among  men;  we  look  upon  the 
change  as  exceedingly  advantageous  to  us  and  to  our 


SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS.  57 

posterity,  and  we  fix  upon  something  that  happened 
away  back,  as  in  some  way  or  other  being  connected 
with  this  rise  of  posterity.  We  find  a  race  of  men  liv- 
ing in  that  day  whom  we  claim  as  our  fathers  and 
grandfathers ;  they  were  iron  men ;  they  fought  for  the 
principle  that  they  were  contending  for;  and  we 
understood  that  by  what  they  then  did  it  has  followed 
that  the  degree  of  prosperity  which  we  now  enjoy  has 
come  to  us.  We  hold  this  annual  celebration  to 
remind  ourselves  of  all  the  good  done  in  this  process 
of  time,  of  how  it  was  done  and  who  did  it,  and  how 
we  are  historically  connected  with  it ;  and  we  go  from 
these  meetings  in  better  humor  with  ourselves,  we 
feel  more  attached  the  one  to  the  other,  and  more 
firmly  bound  to  the  country  we  inhabit.  In  every  way 
we  are  better  men  in  the  age  and  race  and  country  in 
which  we  live,  for  these  celebrations.  But  after  we 
have  done  all  this  we  have  not  yet  reached  the  whole. 
There  is  something  else  connected  with  it.  We  have 
besides  these,  men  descended  by  blood  from  our 
ancestors — those  among  us,  perhaps  half  our  people, 
who  are  not  descendants  at  all  of  these  men ;  they  are 
men  who  have  come  from  Europe, — German,  Irish, 
French,  and  Scandinavian, — men  that  have  come  from 
Europe  themselves,  or  whose  ancestors  have  come 
hither  and  settled  here,  finding  themselves  our  equals 
in  all  things.  If  they  look  back  through  this  history 
to  trace  their  connection  with  those  days  by  blood, 
they  find  they  have  none,  they  cannot  carry  themselves 


58  SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS. 

back  into  that  glorious  epoch  and  make  themselves 
feel  that  they  are  part  of  us;  but  when  they  look 
through  that  old  Declaration  of  Independence,  they 
find  that  those  old  men  say  that,  "We  hold  these 
truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created 
equal;"  and  then  they  feel  that  that  moral  sentiment, 
taught  in  that  day,  evidences  their  relation  to  those 
men,  that  it  is  the  father  of  all  moral  principle  in  them, 
and  that  they  have  a  right  to  claim  it  as  though  they 
were  blood  of  the  blood,  and  flesh  of  the  flesh,  of  the 
men  who  wrote  that  Declaration;  and  so  they  are. 
That  is  the  electric  cord  in  that  Declaration  that  links 
the  hearts  of  patriotic  and  liberty-loving  men  together, 
that  will  link  those  patriotic  hearts  as  long  as  the  love 
of  freedom  exists  in  the  minds  of  men  throughout  the 
world. 

Now,  sirs,  for  the  purpose  of  squaring  things  with 
this  idea  of  "don't  care  if  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted 
down,"  for  sustaining  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  for 
holding  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  did  not 
mean  anything  at  all,  we  have  Judge  Douglas  giving 
his  exposition  of  what  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
means,  and  we  have  him  saying  that  the  people  of 
America  are  equal  to  the  people  of  England.  Accord- 
ing to  his  construction,  you  Germans  are  not  connected 
with  it.  Now,  I  ask  you  in  all  soberness,  if  all  these 
things,  if  indulged  in,  if  ratified,  if  confirmed  and 
indorsed,  if  taught  to  our  children,  and  repeated  to 
them,  do  not  tend  to  rub  out  the  sentiment  of  liberty 


SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS.  59 

in  the  country,  and  to  transform  this  Government  into 
a  government  of  some  other  form.  Those  arguments  / 
that  are  made,  that  the  inferior  race  are  to  be  treated 
with  as  much  allowance  as  they  are  capable  of  enjoy- 
ing ;  that  as  much  is  to  be  done  for  them  as  their  con- 
dition will  allow, — what  are  these  arguments?  They 
are  the  arguments  that  Kings  have  made  for  enslaving 
the  people  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  You  will  find  that 
all  the  arguments  in  favor  of  King-craft  were  of  this 
class;  they  always  bestrode  the  necks  of  the  people, 
not  that  they  wanted  to  do  it,  but  because  the  people 
were  better  off  for  being  ridden.  That  is  their  argu- 
ment, and  this  argument  of  the  Judge  is  the  same  old 
serpent  that  says,  "You  work,  and  I  eat;  you  toil,  and 
I  will  enjoy  the  fruits  of  it."  Turn  it  whatever  way 
you  will,  whether  it  come  from  the  mouth  of  a  King, 
an  excuse  for  enslaving  the  people  of  his  country,  or 
from  the  mouth  of  men  of  one  race  as  a  reason  for 
enslaving  the  men  of  another  race,  it  is  all  the  same  old 
serpent;  and  I  hold,  if  that  course  of  argumentation 
that  is  made  for  the  purpose  of  convincing  the  public 
mind  that  we  should  not  care  about  this,  should  be 
granted,  it  does  not  stop  with  the  negro.  1  should  like 
to  know  if,  taking  this  old  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, which  declares  that  all  men  are  equal  upon  prin- 
ciple, you  begin  making  exceptions  to  it,  where  you 
will  stop?  If  one  man  says  it  does  not  mean  a  negro, 
why  not  another  say  it  does  not  mean  some  other 
man?     If  that  declaration  is  not  the  truth,  let  us  get 


60  SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS. 

the  statute  book  in  which  we  find  it,  and  tear  it  out! 
Who  is  so  bold  as  to  do  it?  If  it  is  not  true,  let  us  tear 
it  out!  [cries  of  "No,  no."]  Let  us  stick  to  it,  then; 
let  us  stand  firmly  by  it  then. 

It  may  be  argued  that  there  are  certain  conditions 
that  make  necessities  and  impose  them  upon  us;  and 
to  the  extent  that  a  necessity  is  imposed  upon  a  man, 
he  must  submit  to  it.  I  think  that  was  the  condition 
in  which  we  found  ourselves  when  we  established  this 
Government.  We  had  slaves  among  us,  we  could  not 
get  our  Constitution  unless  we  permitted  them  to 
remain  in  slavery;  we  could  not  secure  the  good  we 
did  secure  if  we  grasped  for  more;  and  having  by 
necessity  submitted  to  that  much  it  does  not  destroy 
the  principle  that  is  the  charter  of  our  liberties.  Let 
that  charter  stand  as  our  standard. 

My  friend  has  said  to  me  that  I  am  a  poor  hand  to 
quote  Scripture.  I  will  try  it  again,  however.  It  is 
said  in  one  of  the  admonitions  of  our  Lord;  "As  your 
Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect,  be  ye  also  perfect. "  The 
Savior,  I  suppose,  did  not  expect  that  any  human 
creature  could  be  perfect  as  the  Father  in  Heaven;  but 
He  said;  "As  your  Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect,  be  ye 
also  perfect."  He  set  that  up  as  a  standard,  and  he 
who  did  most  toward  reaching  that  standard,  attained 
the  highest  degree  of  moral  perfection.  So  I  say  in 
relation  to  the  principle  that  all  men  are  created  equal, 
let  it  be  as  nearly  reached  as  we  can.  If  we  cannot 
give  freedom  to  every  creature,  let  us  do  nothing  that 


LINCOLN    AS    A    LAWYER.  6l 

will  impose  slavery  upon  any  other  creature.  Let  us 
then  turn  this  Government  back  into  the  channel  in 
which  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  originally  placed 
it.  Let  us  stand  firmly  by  each  other.  If  we  do  not  do 
so  we  are  tending  in  the  contrary  direction  that  our 
friend  Judge  Douglas  proposes — not  intentionally — as 
working  in  the  traces  tends  to  make  this  one  universal 
slave  nation.  He  is  one  that  runs  in  that  direction, 
and  as  such  I  resist  him. 

My  friends,  I  have  detained  you  about  as  long  as  I 
desired  to  do,  and  I  have  only  to  say,  let  us  discard  all 
this  quibbling  about  this  man  and  the  other  man,  this 
race  and  that  race  and  the  other  race  being  inferior, 
and  therefore  they  must  be  placed  in  an  inferior  posi- 
tion. Let  us  discard  all  these  things,  and  unite  as  one 
people  throughout  this  land,  until  we  shall  once  more 
stand  up  declaring  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 


LINCOLN   AS   A   LAWYER. 

As  he  entered  the  trial,  where  most  lawyers  would 
object  he  would  say  he  "reckoned"  it  would  be  fair  to 
let  this  in,  or  that,  and  sometimes,  when  his  adversary 
could  not  quite  prove  what  Lincoln  knew  to  be  the 
truth,  he  "reckoned"  it  would  be  fair  to  admit  the 
truth  to  be  so-and-so.  When  he  did  object  to  the 
court,  and  when  he  heard  his  objections  answered,  he 
would  often  say,  "Well,  I  reckon  I  must  be  wrong." 


62  LINCOLN    AS    A    LAWYER. 

Now,  about  the  time  he  had  practiced  this  three-fourths 
through  the  case,  if  his  adversary  didn't  understand 
him,  he  would  wake  up  in  a  few  minutes  learning  that 
he  had  feared  the  Greeks  too  late,  and  find  himself 
beaten.  He  was  wise  as  a  serpent  in  the  trial  of  a 
cause,  but  I  have  had  too  many  scares  from  his  blows 
to  certify  that  he  was  harmless  as  a  dove.  When  the 
whole  thing  was  unraveled,  the  adversary  would  begin 
to  see  that  what  he  was  so  blandly  giving  away  was 
simply  what  he  couldn't  get  and  keep.  By  giving  away 
six  points  and  carrying  the  seventh,  he  carried  his 
case,  and  the  whole  case  hanging  on  the  seventh,  he 
traded  away  everything  which  would  give  him  the  least 
aid  in  carrying  that.  Any  man  who  took  Lincoln  for 
a  simple-minded  man  would  very  soon  wake  up  with 
his  back  in  a  ditch.  Leonard  Swett. 

Fro7n  "Hemdon's  Life  of  Lincoln." 


In  all  the  elements  that  constituted  a  lawyer  he  had 
few  equals.  He  was  great  at  nisi pr ins  *  and  before  an 
appellate  tribunal.  He  seized  the  strong  points  of  a 
case  and  presented  them  with  clearness  and  great  com- 
pactness. His  mind  was  logical  and  direct,  and  he  did 
not  indulge  in  extraneous  discussion.  Generalities  and 
platitudes  had  no  charm  for  him.  An  unfailing  vein 
of  humor  never  deserted  him,  and  he  was  able  to  clakn 

*In  general:  nisi  prius  courts  are  tribunals  to  determine  facts, 
courts  where  cases  are  tried  in  the  first  instance ;  appellate  courts, 
tribunals  of  appeal,  courts  to  determine  questions  of  law  which 
arise  in  the  trial  in  nisi  prius  courts. 


LINCOLN    AS    A    LAWYER.  6$ 

the  attention  of  court  and  jury  when  the  cause  was 
most  uninteresting  by  the  appropriateness  of  his 
anecdotes.  His  power  of  comparison  was  large,  and 
he  rarely  failed  in  a  legal  discussion  to  use  that  mode 
of  reasoning.  The  framework  of  his  mental  and  moral 
being  was  honesty,  and  a  wrong  case  was  poorly 
defended  by  him.  The  ability  which  some  eminent 
lawyers  possess  of  explaining  away  the  bad  points  of  a 
case  by  ingenious  sophistry  was  denied  him.  In  order 
to  bring  into  full  activity  his  great  powers  it  was 
necessary  that  he  should  be  convinced  of  the  right  and 
justice  of  the  matter  which  he  advocated.  When  so 
convinced,  whether  the  case  was  great  or  small,  he  was 
usually  successful. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  managing  faculty  nor  organiz- 
ing power;  hence  a  child  could  conform  to  the  simple 
and  technical  rules,  the  means  and  the  modes  of  get- 
ting at  justice,  better  than  he.  The  law  has  its  own 
rules,  and  a  student  could  get  at  them  or  keep  with 
them  better  than  Lincoln.  Sometimes  he  was  forced 
to  study  these  if  he  could  not  get  the  rubbish  of  a  case 
removed.  But  all  the  way  through  his  lack  of  method 
and  organizing  ability  was  clearly  apparent. 

■  ■■■■■•••  a 

When  in  a  law  suit  he  believed  his  client  was 
oppressed — as  in  the  Wright  case — he  was  hurtful  in 
denunciation.  When  he  attacked  meanness,  fraud,  or 
vice,  he  was  powerful,  merciless  in  his  castigation. 

From  "Hemdon's  Life  of  Lincoln."       Judge  David  Davis. 


64  LINCOLN    AS    A    LAWYER. 

The  Wright  case  referred  to  was  a  suit  brought  by 
Lincoln  and  myself  to  compel  a  pension  agent  to 
refund  a  portion  of  a  fee  which  he  had  withheld  from 
the  widow  of  a  Revolutionary  soldier.  The  entire 
pension  was  $400,  of  which  sum  the  agent  had  retained 
one-half.  The  pensioner,  an  old  woman  crippled 
and  bent  with  age,  came  hobbling  into  the  office  and 
told  her  story.  It  stirred  Lincoln  up,  and  he  walked 
over  to  the  agent's  office  and  made  a  demand  for  a 
return  of  the  money,  but  without  success.  Then  suit 
was  brought.  The  day  before  the  trial  I  hunted  up 
for  Lincoln,  at  his  request,  a  history  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  of  which  he  read  a  good  portion.  He  told 
me  to  remain  during  the  trial,  until  I  had  heard  his 
address  to  the  jury.  "For,"  said  he,  "I  am  going  to 
skin  Wright,  and  get  that  money  back."  The  only 
witness  we  introduced  was  the  old  lady,  who,  through 
her  tears,  told  her  story.  In  his  speech  to  the  jury, 
Lincoln  recounted  the  causes  leading  to  the  outbreak 
of  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  and  then  drew  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  hardships  of  Valley  Forge,  describing 
with  minuteness  the  men,  barefooted  and  with  bleed- 
ing feet,  creeping  over  the  ice.  As  he  reached  that 
point  in  his  speech  wherein  he  narrated  the  hardened 
action  of  the  defendant  in  fleecing  the  old  woman  of 
her  pension  his  eyes  flashed,  and  throwing  aside  his 
handkerchief,  which  he  held  in  his  right  hand,  he  fairly 
launched  into  him.  His  speech  for  the  next  five  or 
ten  minutes  justified  the  declaration  of  Davis,  that  he 


C-    3 


a2 


LINCOLN    AS    A    LAWYER.  65 

was  "hurtful  in  denunciation  and  merciless  in  castiga- 
tion. ' '  There  was  no  rule  of  court  to  restrain  him  in 
his  argument,  and  I  never,  either  on  the  stump  or  on 
other  occasions  in  court,  saw  him  so  wrought  up. 
Before  he  closed,  he  drew  an  ideal  picture  of  the  plain- 
tiff's husband,  the  deceased  soldier,  parting  with  his 
wife  at  the  threshold  of  their  home,  and  kissing  their 
little  babe  in  cradle,  as  he  started  for  the  war.  "Time 
rolls  by, "  he  said,  in  conclusion;  "The  heroes  of  '76 
have  passed  away  and  are  encamped  on  the  other  shore. 
The  soldier  has  gone  to  rest,  and  now,  crippled, 
blinded,  and  broken,  his  widow  comes  to  you  and  to 
me,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  to  right  her  wrongs.  She 
was  not  always  thus.  She  was  once  a  beautiful  young 
woman.  Her  step  was  as  elastic,  her  face  as  fair,  and 
her  voice  as  sweet  as  any  that  rang  in  the  mountains 
of  old  Virginia.  But  now  she  is  poor  and  defenseless. 
Out  here  on  the  prairies  of  Illinois,  many  hundreds  of 
miles  away  from  the  scenes  of  her  childhood,  she 
appeals  to  us,  who  enjoy  the  privileges  achieved  for 
us  by  the  patriots  of  the  Revolution,  for  our  sympa- 
thetic aid  and  manly  protection.  All  I  ask  is,  shall  we 
befriend  her?"  The  speech  made  the  desired  impres- 
sion on  the  jury.  Half  of  them  were  in  tears,  while 
the  defendant  sat  in  the  court  room,  drawn  up  and 
writhing  under  the  fire  of  Lincoln's  fierce  invective. 
The  jury  returned  a  verdict  in  our  favor  for  every  cent 
we  demanded.  Lincoln  was  so  much  interested  in  the  old 
lady  that  he  became  her  surety  for  costs,  paid  her  way 


66  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

home,  and  her  hotel  bill  while  she  was  in  Springfield. 
When  the  judgment  was  paid  we  remitted  the  proceeds 
to  her  and  made  no  charge  for  our  services.  Lincoln's 
notes  for  the  argument  were  unique:  "No  contract. — 
Not  professional  services. — Unreasonable  charge. — 
Money  retained  by  Deft  not  given  by  Pl'ff. — Revo- 
lutionary  War. — Describe  Valley  Forge  privations. — 
Ice. — Soldiers'  bleeding  feet. — Pl'ff' s  husband. — 
Soldier  leaving  home  for  army. — Skin  Deft. — Close." 
From  "Life  of  Lincoln"  Wm,  H.  Herndon. 


COOPER    UNION   SPEECH. 

{Delivered  in  New  York,  February  27,  i860.) 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Citizens  of  New 
York  : — The  facts  with  which  I  shall  deal  this  evening 
are  mainly  old  and  familiar;  nor  is  there  anything 
new  in  the  general  use  I  shall  make  of  them.  If  there 
shall  be  any  novelty,  it  will  be  in  the  mode  of  present- 
ing the  facts,  and  the  inferences  and  observations  fol- 
lowing that  presentation. 

In  his  speech  last  autumn  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  as 
reported  in  the  New  York  Times,  Senator  Douglas 
said: 

"Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  Government 
under  which  we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as 
well,  and  even  better,  than  we  do  now." 

I  fully  indorse  this,  and  I  adopt  it  as  a  text  for  this 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  67 

discourse.  I  so  adopt  it  because  it  furnishes  a  precise 
and  an  agreed  starting  point  for  the  discussion  between 
Republicans  and  that  wing  of  the  Democracy  headed 
by  Senator  Douglas.  It  simply  leaves  the  inquiry, 
"What  was  the  understanding  those  fathers  had  of  the 
questions  mentioned?" 

What  is  the  frame  of  Government  under  which  we 
live? 

The  answer  must  be,  "The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. ' '  That  Constitution  consists  of  the  orig- 
inal, framed  in  1787  (and  under  which  the  present 
Government  first  went  into  operation),  and  twelve 
subsequently  framed  amendments,  the  first  ten  of 
which  were  framed  in  1789. 

Who  were  our  fathers  that  framed  the  Constitution? 
I  suppose  the  "thirty-nine"  who  signed  the  original 
instrument  may  be  fairly  called  our  fathers  who  framed 
that  part  of  the  present  Government.  It  is  almost 
exactly  true  to  say  they  framed  it,  and  it  is  altogether 
true  to  say  they  fairly  represented  the  opinion  and 
sentiment  of  the  whole  nation  at  that  time.  Their 
names,  being  familiar  to  nearly  all,  and  accessible  to 
quite  all,  need  not  now  be  repeated. 

I  take  these  "thirty-nine,"  for  the  present,  as  being 
"our  fathers  who  framed  the  Government  under  which 
we  live. ' ' 

What  is  the  question  which,  according  to  the  text, 
those  fathers  understood  just  as  well,  and  even  better, 
than  we  do  now? 


68  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

It  is  this:  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from 
federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  for- 
bid our  Federal  Government  control  as  to  slavery  in 
our  Federal  Territories? 

Upon  this,  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative,  and 
Republicans  the  negative.  This  affirmative  and  denial 
form  an  issue;  and  this  issue — this  question — is  pre- 
cisely what  the  text  declares  our  fathers  understood 
better  than  we. 

Let  us  now  inquire  whether  the  "thirty-nine,"  or 
any  of  them,  ever  acted  upon  this  question;  and  if  they 
did,  how  they  acted  upon  it — how  they  expressed  that 
better  understanding. 

In  1784,  three  years  before  the  Constitution,  the 
United  States  then  owning  the  Northwestern  Territory, 
and  no  other,  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  had 
before  them  the  question  of  prohibiting  slavery  in 
that  Territory;  and  four  of  the  "thirty-nine"  who 
afterward  framed  the  Constitution  were  in  that  Con- 
gress, and  voted  on  that  question.  Of  these,  Roger 
Sherman,  Thomas  Mifflin,  and  Hugh  Williamson  voted 
for  the  prohibition,  thus  showing  that,  in  their  under- 
standing, no  line  dividing  local  from  federal  authority, 
nor  anything  else,  properly  forbade  the  Federal 
Government  control  as  to  slavery  in  federal  territory. 
The  other  of  the  four,  James  McHenry,  voted  against 
the  prohibition,  showing  that  for  some  cause  he 
thought  it  improper  to  vote  for  it. 

In  1787,  still  before  the  Constitution,  but  while  the 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  69 

Convention  was  in  session  framing  it,  and  while  the 
Northwestern  Territory  still  was  the  only  territory 
owned  by  the  United  States,  the  same  question  of 
prohibiting  slavery  in  the  territory  again  came  before 
the  Congress  of  the  Confederation;  and  two  more  of 
the  "thirty-nine,"  who  afterward  signed  the  Constitu- 
tion, were  in  that  Congress,  and  voted  on  the  question. 
They  were  William  Blount  and  William  Few ;  and  they 
both  voted  for  the  prohibition — thus  showing  that  in 
their  understanding  no  line  dividing  local  from  fed- 
eral authority,  nor  anything  else,  properly  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  control  as  to  slavery  in  federal 
territory.  This  time  the  prohibition  became  a  law, 
being  part  of  what  is  now  well  known  as  the  Ordinance 
of  '87. 

The  question  of  federal  control  of  slavery  in  the 
territories  seems  not  to  have  been  directly  before  the 
Convention  which  framed  the  original  Constitution; 
and  hence  it  is  not  recorded  that  the  "thirty-nine," 
or  any  of  them,  while  engaged  on  that  instrument, 
expressed  any  opinion  on  that  precise  question. 

In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the 
Constitution,  an  act  was  passed  to  enforce  the  Ordi- 
nance of  '87,  including  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in 
the  Northwestern  Territory.  The  bill  for  this  act  was 
reported  by  one  of  the  "thirty-nine" — Thomas  Fitzsim- 
mons,  then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
from  Pennsylvania.  It  went  through  all  its  stages 
without  a  word  of  opposition,  and  finally  passed  both 


70  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

branches  without  yeas  and  nays,  which  is  equivalent  to 
a  unanimous  passage.  In  this  Congress  there  were 
sixteen  of  the  "thirty-nine"  fathers  who  framed  the 
original  Constitution.  They  were  John  Langdon, 
Nicholas  Gilman,  Wm.  S.  Johnson,  Roger  Sherman, 
Robert  Morris,  Thos.  Fitzsimmons,  William  Few, 
Abraham  Baldwin,  Rufus  King,  William  Patterson, 
George  Clymer,  Richard  Bassett,  George  Read,  Pierce 
Butler,  Daniel  Carrol,  James  Madison. 

This  shows  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line 
dividing  local  from  federal  authority,  nor  anything  in 
the  Constitution,  properly  forbade  Congress  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  the  federal  territory;  else  both  their  fidelity 
to  correct  principle,  and  their  oath  to  support  the  Con- 
stitution, would  have  constrained  them  to  oppose  the 
prohibition. 

Again,  George  Washington,  another  of  the  "thirty- 
nine,"  was  then  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
as  such  approved  and  signed  the  bill,  thus  completing 
its  validity  as  a  law,  and  thus  showing  that,  in  his 
understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from  federal 
authority,  nor  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  control  as  to  slavery  in  federal 
territory. 

No  great  while  after  the  adoption  of  the  original 
Constitution,  North  Carolina  ceded  to  the  Federal 
Government  the  country  now  constituting  the  State  of 
Tennessee ;  and  a  few  years  later  Georgia  ceded  that 
which  now  constitutes  the  States    of  Mississippi  and 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  Jl 

Alabama.  In  both  deeds  of  cession  it  was  made  a 
condition  by  the  ceding  States  that  the  Federal 
Government  should  not  prohibit  slavery  in  the 
ceded  country.  Besides  this,  slavery  was  then 
actually  in  the  ceded  country.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, Congress,  on  taking  charge  of  these 
countries,  did  not  absolutely  prohibit  slavery 
within  them.  But  they  did  interfere  with  it — take 
control  of  it — even  there,  to  a  certain  extent.  In  1798 
Congress  organized  the  Territory  of  Mississippi.  In 
the  act  of  organization  they  prohibited  the  bringing  of 
slaves  into  the  Territory  from  any  place  without  the 
United  States  by  fine  and  giving  freedom  to  slaves  so 
brought.  This  act  passed  both  branches  of  Congress 
without  yeas  and  nays.  In  that  Congress  were  three 
of  the  "thirty-nine"  who  framed  the  original  Constitu- 
tion. They  were  John  Langdon,  George  Read,  and 
Abraham  Baldwin.  They  all  probably  voted  for  it. 
Certainly  they  would  have  placed  their  opposition  to  it 
upon  record  if,  in  their  understanding,  any  line  divid- 
ing local  from  federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the 
Constitution,  properly  forbade  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment control  as  to  slavery  in  federal  territory. 

In  1803  the  Federal  Government  purchased  the 
Louisiana  country.  Our  former  territorial  acquisitions 
came  from  certain  of  our  own  States;  but  this 
Louisiana  country  was  acquired  from  a  foreign  nation. 
In  1804  Congress  gave  a  territorial  organization  to  that 
part  of  it  which  now  constitutes  the  State  of  Louisiana. 


72  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

New  Orleans,  lying  within  that  part,  was  an  old  and 
comparatively  large  city.  There  were  other  consider- 
able towns  and  settlements,  and  slavery  was  extensively 
and  thoroughly  intermingled  with  the  people.  Con- 
gress did  not,  in  the  Territorial  Act,  prohibit  slavery; 
but  they  did  interfere  with  it — take  control  of  it — in  a 
more  marked  and  extensive  way  than  they  did  in  the 
case  of  Mississippi.  The  substance  of  the  provision 
therein  made  in  relation  to  slaves  was : 

(i)  That  no  slave  should  be  imported  into  the  terri- 
tory from  foreign  parts. 

(2)  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it  who  had 
been  imported  into  the  United  States  since  the  first 
day  of  May,  1798. 

(3)  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it,  except  by 
the  owner,  and  for  his  own  use  as  a  settler;  the 
penalty  in  all  the  cases  being  a  fine  upon  the  violator 
of  the  law,  and  freedom  to  the  slave. 

This  act  also  was  passed  without  yeas  and  nays.  In 
the  Congress  which  passed  it  there  were  two  of  the 
"thirty-nine."  They  were  Abraham  Baldwin  and 
Jonathan  Dayton.  As  stated  in  the  case  of  Missis- 
sippi, it  is  probable  they  both  voted  for  it.  They 
would  not  have  allowed  it  to  pass  without  recording 
their  opposition  to  it  if,  in  their  understanding,  it  vio- 
lated either  the  line  proper  dividing  local  from  federal 
authority,  or  any  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

In  1819-20  came  and  passed  the  Missouri  question. 
Many  votes  were  taken,  by  yeas  and  nays,   in  both 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  73 

branches  of  Congress,  upon  the  various  phases  of  the 
general  question.  Two  of  the  "thirty-nine" — Rufus 
King  and  Charles  Pinckney — were  members  of  that 
Congress.  Mr.  King  steadily  voted  for  slavery  prohi- 
bition and  against  all  compromises,  while  Mr.  Pinck- 
ney as  steadily  voted  against  slavery  prohibition  and 
against  all  compromises.  By  this,  Mr.  King  showed 
that,  in  his  understanding,  no  line  dividing  local 
from  federal  authority,  nor  anything  in  the  Con- 
stitution, was  violated  by  Congress  prohibiting  slavery 
in  federal  territory;  while  Mr.  Pinckney,  by  his 
votes,  showed  that,  in  his  understanding,  there  was 
some  sufficient  reason  for  opposing  such  prohibition  in 
that  case. 

The  cases  I  have  mentioned  are  the  only  acts  of  the 
"thirty-nine,"  or  of  any  of  them,  upon  the  direct 
issue,  which  I  have  been  able  to  discover. 

To  enumerate  the  persons  who  thus  acted  as  being 
four  in  1784,  two  in  1787,  seventeen  in  1789,  three  in 
1798,  two  in  1804,  and  two  in  1819-20,  there  would  be 
thirty  of  them.  But  this  would  be  counting  John 
Langdon,  Roger  Sherman,  William  Few,  Rufus  King, 
and  George  Read  each  twice,  and  Abraham  Baldwin 
three  times.  The  true  number  of  those  of  the  "thirty- 
nine"  whom  I  have  shown  to  have  acted  upon  the 
question  which,  by  the  text,  they  understood  better 
than  we,  is  twenty-three,  leaving  sixteen  not  shown  to 
have  acted  upon  it  in  any  way. 

Here,   then,  we  have  twenty- three  out  of  our  "thirty- 


74  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

nine"  fathers  who  framed  the  Government  under  which 
we  live,  who  have,  upon  their  official  responsibility  and 
their  corporal  oaths,  acted  upon  the  very  question 
which  the  text  affirms  they  "understood  just  as  well, 
and  even  better,  than  we  do  now" ;  and  twenty-one  of 
them — a  clear  majority  of  the  whole  "thirty-nine" — so 
acting  upon  it  as  to  make  them  guilty  of  gross  political 
impropriety  and  willful  perjury  if,  in  their  understand- 
ing, any  proper  division  between  local  and  federal 
authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution  they  had 
made  themselves,  and  sworn  to  support,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  fed- 
eral territories.  Thus  the  twenty-one  acted;  and,  as 
actions  speak  louder  than  words,  so  actions  under  such 
responsibility  speak  still  louder. 

Two  of  the  twenty-three  voted  against  Congressional 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories,  in  the 
instances  in  which  they  acted  upon  the  question.  But 
for  what  reasons  they  so  voted  is  not  known.  They 
may  have  done  so  because  they  thought  a  proper 
division  of  local  from  federal  authority,  or  some  pro- 
vision or  principle  of  the  Constitution,  stood  in  the 
way;  or  they  may,  without  any  such  question,  have 
voted  against  the  prohibition  on  what  appeared  to 
them  to  be  sufficient  grounds  of  expediency.  No  one 
who  has  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  can  con- 
scientiously vote  for  what  he  understands  to  be  an 
unconstitutional  measure,  however  expedient  he  may 
think  it;    but  one  may  and  ought  to  vote  against  a 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  75 

measure  which  he  deems  constitutional  if,  at  the  same 
time,  he  deems  it  inexpedient.  It,  therefore,  would 
be  unsafe  to  set  down  even  the  two  who  voted  against 
the  prohibition  as  having  done  so  because,  in  their 
understanding,  any  proper  division  of  local  from  fed- 
eral authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  for- 
bade the  Federal  Government  control  as  to  slavery  in 
federal  territory. 

The  remaining  sixteen  of  the  "thirty-nine,"  so  far  as 
I  have  discovered,  have  left  no  record  of  their  under- 
standing upon  the  direct  question  of  federal  control 
of  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories.  But  there  is 
much  reason  to  believe  that  their  understanding  upon 
that  question  would  not  have  appeared  different  from 
that  of  their  twenty-three  compeers,  had  it  been  mani- 
fested at  all. 

For  the  purpose  of  adhering  rigidly  to  the  text,  I 
have  purposely  omitted  whatever  understanding  may 
have  been  manifested  bj^  any  person,  however  dis- 
tinguished, other  than  the  "thirty-nine"  fathers  who 
framed  the  original  Constitution;  and,  for  the  same 
reason,  I  have  also  omitted  whatever  understanding 
may  have  been  manifested  by  any  of  the  "thirty-nine" 
even  on  any  other  phase  of  the  general  question  of 
slavery.  If  we  should  look  into  their  acts  and  declara- 
tions on  those  other  phases,  as  the  foreign  slave-trade, 
and  the  morality  and  policy  of  slavery  generally,  it 
would  appear  to  us  that  on  the  direct  question  of  fed- 
eral  control    of   slavery   in    Federal   Territories,    the 


76  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

sixteen,  if  they  had  acted  at  all,  would  probably  have 
acted  just  as  the  twenty-three  did.  Among  that  six- 
teen were  several  of  the  most  noted  anti-slavery  men 
of  those  times, — as  Dr.  Franklin,  Alexander  Hamilton, 
and  Gouverneur  Morris, — while  there  was  not  one  now 
known  to  have  been  otherwise,  unless  it  may  be  John 
Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina. 

The  sum  of  the  whole  is,  that  of  our  "thirty-nine" 
fathers  who  framed  the  original  Constitution,  twenty- 
one — a  clear  majority  of  the  whole — certainly  under- 
stood that  no  proper  division  of  local  from  federal 
authority,  nor  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Federal 
Territories ;  while  all  the  rest  probably  had  the  same 
understanding.  Such,  unquestionably,  was  the  under- 
standing of  our  fathers  who  framed  the  original  Con- 
stitution ;  and  the  text  affirms  that  they  understood  the 
question  "better  than  we." 

But,  so  far,  I  have  been  considering  the  understand- 
ing of  the  question  manifested  by  the  framers  of  the 
original  Constitution.  In  and  by  the  original  instru- 
ment, a  mode  was  provided  for  amending  it;  and,  as  I 
have  already  stated,  the  present  frame  of  "the  Govern- 
ment under  which  we  live"  consists  of  that  original, 
and  twelve  amendatory  articles  framed  and  adopted 
since.  Those  who  now  insist  that  federal  control  of 
slavery  in  federal  territories  violates  the  Constitution, 
point  us  to  the  provisions  which  they  suppose  it  thus 
violates;  and,  as  I  understand,  they  all  fix  upon  pro- 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  77 

visions  in  these  amendatory  articles,  and  not  in  the 
original  instrument.  The  Supreme  Court,  in  the  Dred 
Scott  case,  plant  themselves  upon  the  fifth  amendment, 
which  provides  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of 
life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law; 
while  Senator  Douglas  and  his  peculiar  adherents 
plant  themselves  upon  the  tenth  amendment,  provid- 
ing that  "the  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United 
States  by  the  Constitution  are  reserved  to  the  States 
respectively,  or  to  the  people." 

Now,  it  so  happens  that  these  amendments  were 
framed  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the  Con- 
stitution— the  identical  Congress  which  passed  the  act, 
already  mentioned,  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory.  Not  only  was  it  the 
same  Congress,  but  they  were  the  identical,  same  indi- 
vidual men  who,  at  the  same  session,  and  at  the  same 
time  within  the  session,  had  under  consideration,  and 
in  progress  toward  maturity,  these  Constitutional 
amendments,  and  this  act  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the 
territory  the  nation  then  owned.  The  Constitutional 
amendments  were  introduced  before,  and  passed  after, 
the  act  enforcing  the  Ordinance  of  '87;  so  that  during 
the  whole  pendency  of  the  act  to  enforce  the  Ordinance, 
the  Constitutional  amendments  were  also  pending. 

That  Congress,  consisting  in  all  of  seventy-six  mem- 
bers, including  sixteen  of  the  framers  of  the  original 
Constitution,  as  before  stated,  were  pre-eminently  our 
fathers  who  framed  that  part  of  the  Government  under 


78  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

which  we  live,  which  is  now  claimed  as  forbidding  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Federal 
Territories. 

Is  it  not  a  little  presumptuous  in  any  one  at  this  day 
to  affirm  that  the  two  things  which  that  Congress 
deliberately  framed,  and  carried  to  maturity  at  the 
same  time,  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  each  other? 
And  does  not  such  affirmation  become  impudently 
absurd  when  coupled  with  the  other  affirmation,  from 
the  same  mouth,  that  those  who  did  the  two  things 
alleged  to  be  inconsistent,  understood  whether  they 
were  really  inconsistent  better  than  we — better  than  he 
who  affirms  that  they  are  inconsistent? 

It  is  surely  safe  to  assume  that  the  "thirty-nine" 
framers  of  the  original  Constitution,  and  the  seventy- 
six  members  of  the  Congress  which  framed  the  amend- 
ments thereto,  taken  together,  do  certainly  include 
those  who  may  be  fairly  called  "our  fathers  who  framed 
the  Government  under  which  we  live. ' '  And  so  assum- 
ing, I  defy  any  man  to  show  that  any  one  of  them 
ever,  in  his  whole  life,  declared  that,  in  his  understand- 
ing, any  proper  division  of  local  from  federal 
authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Fed- 
eral Territories.  I  go  a  step  further.  I  defy  any  one 
to  show  that  any  living  man  in  the  whole  world  ever 
did,  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  (and 
I  might  almost  say  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  last 
half  of  the  present  century),  declare  that,  in  his  under- 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  79 

standing,  any  proper  division  of  local  from  federal 
authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  Territories.  To  those  who  now  so  declare  I 
give  not  only  "our  fathers  who  framed  the  Government 
under  which  we  live,"  but  with  them  all  other  living 
men  within  the  century  in  which  it  was  framed, 
among  whom  to  search,  and  they  shall  not  be  able  to 
find  the  evidence  of  a  single  man  agreeing  with  them. 

Now,  and  here,  let  me  guard  a  little  against  being 
misunderstood.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  we  are  bound 
to  follow  implicitly  in  whatever  our  fathers  did.  To 
do  so  would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of  current 
experience,  to  reject  all  progress,  all  improvement. 
What  I  do  say  is  that  if  we  would  supplant  the  opin- 
ions and  policy  of  our  fathers  in  any  case,  we  should 
do  so  upon  evidence  so  conclusive,  and  argument  so 
clear,  that  even  their  great  authority,  fairly  considered 
and  weighed,  cannot  stand*,  and  most  surely  not  in  a 
case  whereof  we  ourselves  declare  they  understood  the 
question  better  than  we. 

If  any  man  at  this  day  sincerely  believes  that  a 
proper  division  of  local  from  federal  authority,  or  any 
part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment control  as  to  slavery  in  the  federal  territories, 
he  is  right  to  say  so,  and  to  enforce  his  position  by  all 
truthful  evidence  and  fair  argument  which  he  can. 
But  he  has  no  right  to  mislead  others,  who  have  less 
access  to  history,  and  less  leisure  to  study  it,  into  the 


80  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

false  belief  that  "our  fathers  who  framed  the  Govern- 
ment under  which  we  live"  were  of  the  same  opinion 
— thus  substituting  falsehood  and  deception  for  truthful 
evidence  and  fair  argument.  If  any  man  at  this  day 
sincerely  believes  ''our  fathers  who  framed  the  Govern- 
ment under  which  we  live"  used  and  applied  prin- 
ciples, in  other  cases,  which  ought  to  have  led  them  to 
understand  that  a  proper  division  of  local  from  federal 
authority,  or  some  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the 
Federal  Government  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Fed- 
eral Territories,  he  is  right  to  say  so.  But  he  should, 
at  the  same  time,  brave  the  responsibility  of  declaring 
that,  in  his  opinion,  he  understands  their  principles 
better  than  they  did  themselves ;  and  especially  should 
he  not  shirk  that  responsibility  by  asserting  that  they 
"understood  the  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better 
than  we  do  now. ' ' 

But  enough!  Let  all  who  believe  that  "our  fathers 
who  framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live 
understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better, 
than  we  do  now"  speak  as  they  spoke,  and  act  as  they 
acted  upon  it.  This  is  all  Republicans  ask — all 
Republicans  desire — in  relation  to  slavery.  As  those 
fathers  marked  it,  so  let  it  be  again  marked,  as  an  evil 
not  to  be  extended,  but  to  be  tolerated  and  protected 
only  because  of  and  so  far  as  its  actual  presence  among 
us  makes  that  toleration  and  protection  a  necessity. 
Let  all  the  guaranties  those  fathers  gave  it  be  not 
grudgingly  but  fully  and  fairly  maintained.  -  For  this 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  8l 

Republicans  contend,  and  with  this,  so  far  as  I  know  or 
believe,  they  will  be  content. 

And  now,  if  they  would  listen, — as  I  suppose  they 
will  not, — I  would  address  a  few  words  to  the  South- 
ern people. 

I  would  say  to  them:  You  consider  yourselves  a 
reasonable  and  a  just  people ;  and  I  consider  that  in  the 
general  qualities  of  reason  and  justice  you  are  not 
inferior  to  any  other  people.  Still,  when  you  speak  of 
us  Republicans,  you  do  so  only  to  denounce  us  as 
reptiles,  or,  at  the  best,  as  no  better  than  outlaws. 
You  will  grant  a  hearing  to  pirates  or  murderers,  but 
nothing  like  it  to  "Black  Republicans."  In  all  your 
contentions  with  one  another,  each  of  you  deems  an 
unconditional  condemnation  of  "Black  Republicanism" 
as  the  first  thing  to  be  attended  to.  Indeed,  such  con- 
demnation of  us  seems  to  be  an  indispensable  prereq- 
uisite—  license,  so  to  speak — among  you  to  be 
admitted  or  permitted  to  speak  at  all.  Now  can  you 
or  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  pause  and  to  consider 
whether  this  is  quite  just  to  us,  or  even  to  your- 
selves? Bring  forward  your  charges  and  specifica- 
tions, and  then  be  patient  long  enough  to  hear  us  deny 
or  justify. 

You  say  we  are  sectional.  We  deny  it.  That  makes 
an  issue ;  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  you.  You 
produce  your  proof;  and  what  is  it?  Why,  that  our 
party  has  no  existence  in  your  section — gets  no  votes 
in  your  section.     The  fact  is  substantially  true;   but 


%2  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

does  it  prove  the  issue?  If  it  does,  then  in  case  we 
should,  without  change  of  principle,  begin  to  get  votes 
in  your  section,  we  should  thereby  cease  to  be  sec- 
tional. You  cannot  escape  this  conclusion;  and  yet, 
are  you  willing  to  abide  by  it?  If  you  are,  you  will 
probably  soon  find  that  we  have  ceased  to  be  sectional, 
for  we  shall  get  votes  in  your  section  this  very  year. 
You  will  then  begin  to  discover,  as  the  truth  plainly 
is,  that  your  proof  does  not  touch  the  issue.  The  fact 
that  we  get  no  votes  in  your  section  is  a  fact  of  your 
making,  and  not  of  ours.  And  if  there  be  fault  in  that 
fact,  that  fault  is  primarily  yours,  and  remains  so  until 
you  show  that  we  repel  you  by  some  wrong  principle  or 
practice.  If  we  do  repel  you  by  any  wrong  prin- 
ciple or  practice,  the  fault  is  ours ;  but  this  brings  you 
to  where  you  ought  to  have  started — to  a  discussion  of 
the  right  or  wrong  of  our  principle.  If  our  principle, 
put  in  practice,  would  wrong  your  section  for  the  bene- 
fit of  ours,  or  for  any  other  object,  then  our  principle, 
and  we  with  it,  are  sectional,  and  are  justly  opposed 
and  denounced  as  such.  Meet  us,  then,  on  the  ques- 
tion of  whether  our  principle,  put  in  practice,  would 
wrong  your  section ;  and  so  meet  it  as  if  it  were  pos- 
sible that  something  may  be  said  on  our  side.  Do  you 
accept  the  challenge?  No!  Then  you  really  believe 
that  the  principle  which  our  fathers  who  framed  the 
Government  under  which  we  live  thought  so  clearly 
right  as  to  adopt  it,  and  indorse  it  again  and  again, 
upon  their  official  oaths,  is  in  fact  so  clearly  wrong  as 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  83 

to    demand  your   condemnation   without  a  moment's 
consideration. 

Some  of  you  delight  to  flaunt  in  our  faces  the  warn- 
ing against  sectional  parties  given  by  Washington  in 
his  Farewell  Address.  Less  than  eight  years  before 
Washington  gave  that  warning,  he  had,  as  President 
of  the  United  States,  approved  and  signed  an  act  of 
Congress  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the 
Northwestern  Territory,  which  act  embodied  the  policy 
of  the  government  upon  that  subject  up  to  and  at  the 
very  moment  he  penned  that  warning ;  and  about  one 
year  after  he  penned  it  he  wrote  Lafayette  that  he 
considered  that  prohibition  a  wise  measure,  expressing 
in  the  same  connection  his  hope  that  we  should  some 
time  have  a  confederacy  of  free  States. 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  and  seeing  that  sectionalism 
has  since  arisen  upon  this  same  subject,  is  that  warn- 
ing a  weapon  in  your  hands  against  us,  or  in  our  hands 
against  you?  Could  Washington  himself  speak,  would 
he  cast  the  blame  of  that  sectionalism  upon  us,  who 
sustain  his  policy,  or  upon  you,  who  repudiate  it?  We 
respect  that  warning  of  Washington,  and  we  com- 
mend it  to  you,  together  with  his  example  pointing  to 
the  right  application  of  it. 

But  you  say  you  are  conservative — eminently  con- 
servative— while  we  are  revolutionary,  destructive,  or 
something  of  the  sort.  What  is  conservatism?  Is  it 
not  adherence  to  the  old  and  tried  against  the  new  and 
untried?     We  stick  to,  contend  for,  the  identical  old 


84  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

policy  on  the  point  in  controversy  which  was  adopted 
by  our  fathers  who  framed  the  Government  under 
which  we  live;  while  yon,  with  one  accord,  reject,  and 
scout,  and  spit  upon  that  old  policy,  and  insist  upon 
substituting  something  new.  True,  you  disagree 
among  yourselves  as  to  what  that  substitute  shall  be. 
You  are  divided  on  new  propositions  and  plans,  but 
yon  are  unanimous  in  rejecting  and  denouncing  the 
old  policy  of  the  fathers.  Some  of  you  are  for  reviv- 
ing the  foreign  slave-trade ;  some  for  a  Congressional 
Slave-Code  for  the  Territories;  some  for  Congress 
forbidding  the  Territories  to  prohibit  slavery  within 
their  limits;  some  for  maintaining  slavery  in  the 
Territories  through  the  Judiciary;  some  for  the  "gur- 
reat  pur-rinciple"  that  "if  one  man  would  enslave 
another,  no  third  man  should  object,"  fantastically 
called  "Popular  Sovereignty";  but  never  a  man  among 
you  is  in  favor  of  federal  prohibition  of  slavery  in 
Federal  Territories,  according  to  the  practice  of  our 
fathers  who  framed  the  Government  under  which  we 
live.  Not  one  of  all  your  various  plans  can  show  a 
precedent  or  an  advocate  in  the  century  within  which 
our  Government  originated.  Consider,  then,  whether 
your  claim  of  conservatism  for  yourselves,  and  your 
charge  of  destructiveness  against  us,  are  based  on  the 
most  clear  and  stable  foundations. 

Again,  you  say  we  have  made  the  slavery  question 
more  prominent  than  it  formerly  was.  We  deny  it. 
We  admit  that  it  is  more  prominent,  but  we  deny  that 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  85 

we  made  it  so.  It  was  not  we,  but  you,  who  discarded 
the  old  policy  of  the  fathers.  We  resisted,  and  still 
resist,  your  innovation ;  and  thence  comes  the  greater 
prominence  of  the  question.  Would  you  have  that 
question  reduced  to  its  former  proportions?  Go  back 
to  that  old  policy.  What  has  been  will  be  again,  under 
the  same  conditions.  If  you  would  have  the  peace  of 
the  old  times,  re-adopt  the  precepts  and  policy  of  the 
old  times. 

You  charge  that  we  stir  up  insurrections  among  your 
slaves.  We  deny  it;  and  what  is  your  proof?  Har- 
per's Ferry!  John  Brown!!  John  Brown  was  no 
Republican ;  and  you  have  failed  to  implicate  a  single 
Republican  in  his  Harper's  Ferry  enterprise.  If  any 
member  of  our  party  is  guilty  in  that  matter,  you 
know  it,  or  you  do  not  know  it.  If  you  do  know  it,  you 
are  inexcusable  for  not  designating  the  man  and  prov- 
ing the  fact.  If  you  do  not  know  it,  you  are  inexcus- 
able for  asserting  it,  and  especially  for  persisting  in  the 
assertion  after  you  have  tried  and  failed  to  make  the 
proof.  You  need  not  be  told  that  persisting  in  a  charge 
which  one  does  not  know  to  be  true  is  simply  malicious 
slander. 

Some  of  you  admit  that  no  Republican  designedly 
aided  or  encouraged  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair,  but 
still  insist  that  our  doctrines  and  declarations  neces- 
sarily lead  to  such  results.  We  do  not  believe  it.  We 
know  we  hold  to  no  doctrine,  and  make  no  declaration, 
which  were  not  held  to  and  made  by  our  fathers  who 


86  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live.  You 
never  deal  fairly  by  us  in  relation  to  this  affair.  When 
it  occurred,  some  important  State  elections  were  near 
at  hand,  and  you  were  in  evident  glee  with  the  belief 
that,  by  charging  the  blame  upon  us,  you  could  get  an 
advantage  of  us  in  those  elections.  The  elections 
came,  and  your  expectations  were  not  quite  fulfilled. 
Every  Republican  man  knew  that,  as  to  himself  at 
least,  your  charge  was  a  slander,  and  he  was  not  much 
inclined  by  it  to  cast  his  vote  in  your  favor.  Repub- 
lican doctrines  and  declarations  are  accompanied  with 
a  continual  protest  against  any  interference  whatever 
with  your  slaves,  or  with  you  about  your  slaves. 
Surely,  this  does  not  encourage  them  to  revolt.  True, 
we  do,  in  common  with  our  fathers  who  framed  the 
Government  under  which  we  live,  declare  our  belief 
that  slavery  is  wrong;  but  the  slaves  do  not  hear  us 
declare  even  this.  For  anything  we  say  or  do,  the 
slaves  would  scarcely  know  there  is  a  Republican 
party.  I  believe  they  would  not,  in  fact,  generally 
know  it  but  for  your  misrepresentations  of  us  in  their 
hearing.  In  your  political  contest  among  yourselves, 
each  faction  charges  the  other  with  sympathy  with 
Black  Republicanism;  and  then,  to  give  point  to 
the  charge,  defines  Black  Republicanism  to  simply 
be  insurrection,  blood,  and  thunder  among  the 
slaves. 

Slave  insurrections  are  no  more  common  now  than 
they  were  before  the  Republican  party  was  organized. 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  87 

What  induced  the  Southampton  insurrection,* 
twenty-eight  years  ago,  in  which  at  least  three  times 
as  many  lives  were  lost  as  at  Harper's  Ferry?  You  can 
scarcely  stretch  your  very  elastic  fancy  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Southampton  was  got  up  by  Black  Repub- 
licanism. In  the  present  state  of  things  in  the  United 
States,  I  do  not  think  a  general,  or  even  a  very  exten- 
sive slave  insurrection  is  possible.  The  indispensable 
concert  of  action  cannot  be  attained.  The  slaves  have 
no  means  of  rapid  communication ;  nor  can  incendiary 
free  men,  black  or  white,  supply  it.  The  explosive 
materials  are  everywhere  in  parcels ;  but  there  neither 
are,  nor  can  be  supplied,  the  indispensable  connecting 
trains. 

Much  is  said  by  southern  people  about  the  affection 
of  slaves  for  their  masters  and  mistresses ;  and  a  part 
of  it,  at  least,  is  true.  A  plot  for  an  uprising  could 
scarcely  be  devised  and  communicated  to  twenty  indi- 
viduals before  some  one  of  them,  to  save  the  life  of  a 
favorite  master  or  mistress,  would  divulge  it.  This  is 
the  rule ;  and  the  slave  revolution  in  Hayti  was  not  an 
exception  to  it,  but  a  case  occurring  under  peculiar 
circumstances.  The  gunpowder  plot  of  British  his- 
tory, though  not  connected  with  slaves,  was  more  in 
point.     In  that  case,  only  about  twenty  were  admitted 

*In  Southampton  county,  Virginia,  August,  183 1,  occurred  an 
uprising  of  slaves,  led  by  one  Nat.  Turner,  a  religious  fanatic  who 
believed  himself  commissioned  by  heaven  to  free  the  slaves  with 
fire  and  sword.  The  insurrection  was  quickly  subdued,  but  cost 
the  life  of  sixty-one  white  persons.  The  affair  created  the  greatest 
excitement  in  the  South, 


88  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

to  the  secret ;  and  yet  one  of  them,  in  his  anxiety  to 
save  a  friend,  betrayed  the  plot  to  that  friend,  and,  by 
consequence,  averted  the  calamity.  Occasional  poison- 
ings from  the  kitchen,  and  open  or  stealthy  assassina- 
tions in  the  field,  and  local  revolts  extending  to  a  score 
or  so,  will  continue  to  occur  as  the  natural  results  of 
slavery;  but  no  general  insurrection  of  slaves,  as  I 
think,  can  happen  in  this  country  for  a  long  time. 
Whoever  much  fears,  or  much  hopes,  for  such  an 
event,  will  be  alike  disappointed. 

In  the  language  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  uttered  many 
years  ago,  "It  is  still  in  our  power  to  direct  the  process 
of  emancipation  and  deportation  peaceably,  and  in  such 
slow  degrees  as  that  the  evil  will  wear  off  insensibly ; 
and  their  places  be,  pari  passu,  filled  up  by  free  white 
laborers.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  left  to  force  itself  on, 
human  nature  must  shudder  at  the  prospect  held  up. ' ' 

Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  mean  to  say,  nor  do  I,  that  the 
power  of  emancipation  is  in  the  Federal  Government. 
He  spoke  of  Virginia;  and,  as  to  the  power  of  emanci- 
)  pation,  I  speak  of  the  slaveholding  States  only. 

The  Federal  Government,  however,  as  we  insist,  has 
the  power  of  restraining  the  extension  of  the  institution 
— the  power  to  insure  that  a  slave  insurrection  shall 
never  occur  on  any  American  soil  which  is  now  free 
from  slavery. 

John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a  slave 
insurrection.  It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men  to 
get   up   a  revolt  among  slaves,   in  which   the   slaves 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  89 

refused  to  participate.  In  fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that 
the  slaves,  with  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough 
it  could  not  succeed.  That  affair,  in  its  philosophy, 
corresponds  with  the  man)'  attempts,  related  in  his- 
tory, at  the  assassination  of  kings  and  emperors.  An 
enthusiast  broods  over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till 
he  fancies  himself  commissioned  by  heaven  to  liberate 
them.  He  ventures  the  attempt,  which  ends  in  little 
else  than  in  his  own  execution.  Orsini's*  attempt  on 
Louis  Napoleon,  and  John  Brown's  attempt  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  were,  in  their  philosophy,  precisely  the  same. 
The  eagerness  to  cast  blame  on  old  England  in  the  one 
case,  and  on  New  England  in  the  other,  does  not  dis- 
prove the  sameness  of  the  two  things. 

And  how  much  would  it  avail  you,  if  you  could,  by 
the  use  of  John  Brown,  Helper's  book,f  and  the  like, 
break  up  the  Republican  organization?  Human  action 
can  be  modified  to  some  extent,  but  human  nature 
cannot  be  changed.  There  is  a  judgment  and  a  feel- 
ing against  slavery  in  this  nation,  which  cast  at  least  a 
million  and  a  half  of  votes.  You  cannot  destroy  that 
judgment  and  feeling — that  sentiment — by  breaking 
up  the  political  organization  which  rallies  around  it. 


*Orsini,  Felice.  An  Italian  patriot  and  revolutionist.  He, 
with  others,  attempted  to  assassinate  Napoleon  III.  January  14, 
1858.      He  was  executed  March  13,  1858. 

f  Helper's  book,  "The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South :  How  to 
Meet  It,"  was  written  in  1857  by  a  poor  white  of  North  Carolina 
and  first  attracted  attention  from  the  Republicans  in  1859.  "It 
was  an  arraignment  of  slavery  from  the  standpoint  of  the  poor 
white,  and  in  his  interest." 


90  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

You  can  scarcely  scatter  and  disperse  an  army  which 
has  been  formed  into  order  in  the  face  of  your  heaviest 
fire ;  but  if  you  could,  how  much  would  you  gain  by 
forcing  the  sentiment  which  created  it  out  of  the 
peaceful  channel  of  the  ballot  box  into  some  other 
channel?  What  would  that  other  channel  probably  be? 
Would  the  number  of  John  Browns  be  lessened  or 
enlarged  by  the  operation? 

But  you  will  break  up  the  Union  rather  than  submit 
to  a  denial  of  your  Constitutional  rights. 

That  has  a  somewhat  reckless  sound;  but  it  would  be 
palliated,  if  not  fully  justified,  were  we  proposing,  by 
the  mere  force  of  numbers,  to  deprive  you  of  some 
right  plainly  written  down  in  the  Constitution.  But 
we  are  proposing  no  such  thing. 

When  you  make  these  declarations,  you  have  a 
specific  and  well-understood  allusion  to  an  assumed 
Constitutional  right  of  yours  to  take  slaves  into  the 
Federal  Territories  and  hold  them  there  as  property. 
But  no  such  right  is  specifically  written  in  the  Consti- 
tution. That  instrument  is  literally  silent  about  any 
such  right.  We,  on  the  contrary,  deny  that  such  a 
right  has  any  existence  in  the  Constitution,  even  by 
implication. 

Your  purpose,  then,  plainly  stated,  is  that  you  will 
destroy  the  Government,  unless  you  be  allowed  to  con- 
strue and  enforce  the  Constitution  as  you  please,  on 
all  points  in  dispute  between  you  and  us.  You  will 
rule  or  ruin  in  all  events, 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  t)t 

This,  plainly  stated,  is  your  language  to  us.  Perhaps 
you  will  say  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  disputed 
Constitutional  question  in  your  favor.  Not  quite  so. 
But  waiving  the  lawyer's  distinction  between  dictum 
and  decision,  the  Court  has  decided  the  question  for 
you  in  a  sort  of  way.  The  Court  has  substantially  said, 
it  is  your  Constitutional  right  to  take  slaves  into  the 
Federal  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as  property. 

When  I  say  the  decision  was  made  in  a  sort  of  way, 
I  mean  it  was  made  in  a  divided  Court,  by  a  bare 
majority  of  the  Judges,  and  they  not  quite  agreeing 
with  one  another  in  the  reasons  for  making  it ;  that  it  is 
so  made  as  that  its  avowed  supporters  disagree  with 
one  another  about  its  meaning,  and  that  it  was  mainly 
based  upon  a  mistaken  statement  of  fact — the  state- 
ment in  the  opinion  that  "the  right  of  property  in  a 
slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Consti- 
tution. " 

An  inspection  of  the  Constitution  will  show  that  the 
right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  not  distinctly  and 
expressly  affirmed  in  it.  Bear  in  mind,  the  Judges  do 
not  pledge  their  judicial  opinion  that  such  right  is 
impliedly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution ;  but  they  pledge 
their  veracity  that  it  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed 
there — "distinctly,"  that  is,  not  mingled  with  anything 
else — "expressly,"  that  is,  in  words  meaning  just  that 
without  the  aid  of  any  inference,  and  susceptible  of  no 
other  meaning. 

If  they  had  only  pledged  their  judicial  opinion  that 


92  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

such  right  is  affirmed  in  the  instrument  by  implication, 
it  would  be  open  to  others  to  show  that  neither  the 
word  "slave"  nor  "slavery"  is  to  be  found  in  the  Con- 
stitution, nor  the  word  "property"  even,  in  any  con- 
nection with  language  alluding  to  the  things  slave,  or 
slavery ;  and  that  wherever  in  that  instrument  the  slave 
is  alluded  to,  he  is  called  a  "person"  ;  and  wherever  his 
master's  legal  right  in  relation  to  him  is  alluded  to,  it 
is  spoken  of  as  "service  or  labor  which  may  be  due," 
as  a  "debt"  payable  in  service  or  labor.  Also  it  would 
be  open  to  show,  by  contemporaneous  history,  that 
this  mode  of  alluding  to  slaves  and  slavery,  instead  of 
speaking  of  them,  was  employed  on  purpose  to  exclude 
from  the  Constitution  the  idea  that  there  could  be 
property  in  man. 

To  show  all  this  is  easy  and  certain. 

When  this  obvious  mistake  of  the  Judges  shall  be 
brought  to  their  notice,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  expect 
that  they  will  withdraw  the  mistaken  statement,  and 
reconsider  the  conclusion  based  upon  it? 

And  then  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  "our  fathers 
who  framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live" — 
the  men  who  made  the  Constitution — decided  this  same 
Constitutional  question  in  our  favor  long  ago ;  decided 
it  without  division  among  themselves  when  making  the 
decision ;  without  division  among  themselves  about  the 
meaning  of  it  after  it  was  made,  and,  so  far  as  any  evi- 
dence is  left,  without  basing  it  upon  any  mistaken 
statement  of  facts. 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  93 

Under  all  these  circumstances,  do  you  really  feel 
yourselves  justified  to  break  up  this  Government  unless 
such  a  court  decision  as  yours  is  shall  be  at  once  sub- 
mitted to  as  a  conclusive  and  final  rule  of  political 
action?  But  you  will  not  abide  the  election  of  a  Repub- 
lican President!  In  that  supposed  event,  you  say,  you 
will  destroy  the  Union ;  and  then,  you  say,  the  great 
crime  of  having  destroyed  it  will  be  upon  us !  That  is 
cool.  A  highwayman  holds  a  pistol  to  my  ear,  and 
mutters  through  his  teeth,  "Stand  and  deliver,  or  I 
shall  kill  you,  and  then  you  will  be  a  murderer!" 

To  be  sure,  what  the  robber  demanded  of  me — my 
money — was  my  own ;  and  I  had  a  clear  right  to  keep 
it ;  but  it  was  no  more  my  own  than  my  vote  is  my  own ; 
and  the  threat  of  death  to  me,  to  extort  my  money, 
and  the  threat  of  destruction  to  the  Union,  to  extort 
my   vote,    can  scarcely  be  distinguished  in  principle. 

A  few  words  now  to  Republicans.  It  is  exceedingly 
desirable  that  all  parts  of  this  great  Confederacy  shall 
be  at  peace,  and  in  harmony  one  with  another.  Let 
us  Republicans  do  our  part  to  have  it  so.  Even  though 
much  provoked,  let  us  do  nothing  through  passion  and 
ill-temper.  Even  though  the  southern  people  will  not 
so  much  as  listen  to  us,  let  us  calmly  consider  their 
demands,  and  yield  to  them  if,  in  our  deliberate  view  of 
our  duty,  we  possibly  can.  Judging  by  all  they  say 
and  do,  and  by  the  subject  and  nature  of  their  con- 
troversy with  us,  let  us  determine,  if  we  can,  what  will 
satisfy  them. 


94  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  Territories  be  uncon- 
ditionally surrendered  to  them?  We  know  they  will 
not.  In  all  their  present  complaints  against  us,  the 
Territories  are  scarcely  mentioned.  Invasions  and 
insurrections  are  the  rage  now.  Will  it  satisfy  them 
if,  in  the  future,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  invasions 
and  insurrections?  We  know  it  will  not.  We  so 
know,  because  we  know  we  never  had  anything  to  do 
with  invasions  and  insurrections;  and  yet  this  total 
abstaining  does  not  exempt  us  from  the  charge  and 
the  denunciation. 

The  question  recurs,  what  will  satisfy  them?  Simply 
this:  We  must  not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we  must 
somehow  convince  them  that  we  do  let  them  alone. 
This,  we  know  by  experience,  is  no  easy  task.  We 
have  been  so  trying  to  convince  them  from  the  very 
beginning  of  our  organization,  but  with  no  success. 
In  all  our  platforms  and  speeches  we  have  constantly 
protested  our  purpose  to  let  them  alone;  but  this  has 
had  no  tendency  to  convince  them.  Alike  unavailing 
to  convince  them  is  the  fact  that  they  have  never 
detected  a  man  of  us  in  any  attempt  to  disturb 
them. 

These  natural  and  apparently  adequate  means  all 
failing,  what  will  convince  them?  This,  and  this  only: 
Cease  to  call  slavery  wrong,  and  join  them  in  calling 
it  right.  And  this  must  be  done  thoroughly — done  in 
acts  as  well  as  in  words.  Silence  will  not  be  tolerated 
—we  must  place  ourselves  avowedly  with  them.     Sen^ 


COOPER    UNION    SPEECH.  95 

ator  Douglas's  new  sedition  law  must  be  enacted  and 
enforced,  suppressing  all  declarations  that  slavery  is 
wrong,  whether  made  in  politics,  in  presses,  in  pulpits, 
or  in  private.  We  must  arrest  and  return  their  fugi- 
tive slaves  with  greedy  pleasure.  We  must  pull  down 
our  Free-State  Constitutions.  The  whole  atmosphere 
must  be  disinfected  from  all  taint  of  opposition  to 
slavery,  before  they  will  cease  to  believe  that  all  their 
troubles  proceed  from  us. 

I  am  quite  aware  they  do  not  state  their  case  pre- 
cisely in  this  way.  Most  of  them  would  probably  say 
to  us,  "Let  us  alone;  do  nothing  to  us,  and  say  what 
you  please  about  slavery."  But  we  do  let  them  alone, 
— have  never  disturbed  them, — so  that,  after  all,  it  is 
what  we  say  which  dissatisfies  them.  They  will  con- 
tinue to  accuse  us  of  doing  until  we  cease  saying. 

I  am  also  aware  they  have  not  as  yet  in  terms 
demanded  the  overthrow  of  our  Free- State  Constitu- 
tions. Yet  those  Constitutions  declare  the  wrong  of 
slavery  with  more  solemn  emphasis  than  do  all  other 
sayings  against  it;  and  when  all  these  other  sayings 
shall  have  been  silenced,  the  overthrow  of  these  Con- 
stitutions will  be  demanded,  and  nothing  be  left  to 
resist  the  demand.  It  is  nothing  to  the  contrary  that 
they  do  not  demand  the  whole  of  this  just  now. 
Demanding  what  they  do,  and  for  the  reason  they  do, 
they  can  voluntarily  stop  nowhere  short  of  this  con- 
summation. Holding,  as  they  do,  that  slavery  is 
morally  right  and  socially  elevating,  they  cannot  cease 


g6  COOPER    UNION    SPEECH. 

to  demand  a  full  national  recognition  of  it  as  a  legal 
right  and  a  social  blessing. 

Nor  can  we  justifiably  withhold  this  on  any  ground 
save  our  conviction  that  slavery  is  wrong.  If  slavery 
is  right,  all  words,  acts,  laws,  and  constitutions  against 
it  are  themselves  wrong,  and  should  be  silenced  and 
swept  away.  If  it  is  right,  we  cannot  justly  object  to 
its  nationality — its  universality;  if  it  is  wrong,  they 
cannot  justly  insist  upon  its  extension — its  enlarge- 
ment. All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we 
thought  slavery  right ;  all  we  ask  they  could  as  readily 
grant  if  they  thought  it  wrong.  Their  thinking  it 
right  and  our  thinking  it  wrong  is  the  precise  fact 
upon  which  depends  the  whole  controversy.  Think- 
ing it  right,  as  they  do,  they  are  not  to  blame  for  desir- 
ing its  full  recognition  as  being  right ;  but  thinking  it 
wrong,  as  we  do,  can  we  yield  to  them?  Can  we  cast 
our  votes  with  their  view,  and  against  our  own?  In 
view  of  our  moral,  social,  and  political  responsibilities, 
can  we  do  this? 

Wrong  as  we  think  slavery  is,  we  can  yet  afford  to 
let  it  alone  where  it  is,  because  that  much  is  due  to  the 
necessity  arising  from  its  actual  presence  in  the  nation ; 
but  can  we,  while  our  votes  will  prevent  it,  allow  it  to 
spread  into  the  National  Territories,  and  to  overrun  us 
here  in  these  Free  States? 

If  our  sense  of  duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand 
by  our  duty  fearlessly  and  effectively.  Let  us  be 
diverted    by  none    of  those    sophistical    contrivances 


EXTRACT    FROM    HARTFORD    SPEECH.  97 

wherewith  we  are  so  industriously  plied  and  belabored 
— contrivances  such  as  groping  for  some  middle  ground 
between  the  right  and  the  wrong ;  vain  as  the  search 
for  a  man  who  should  be  neither  a  living  man  nor  a 
dead  man;  such  as  a  policy  of  "don't  care"  on  a  ques- 
tion about  which  all  true  men  do  care ;  such  as  Union 
appeals  beseeching  true  Union  men  to  yield  to  Dis- 
unionists,  reversing  the  Divine  rule,  and  calling,  not 
the  sinners,  but  the  righteous  to  repentance;  such  as 
invocations  to  Washington,  imploring  men  to  unsay 
what  Washington  said,  and  undo  what  Washington  did. 
Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by  false 
accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by 
menaces  of  destruction  to  the  Government,  nor  of 
dungeons  to  ourselves.  Let  us  have  faith  that  right 
makes  might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end  dare  to 
do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it. 


EXTRACT    FROM    HARTFORD    SPEECH. 

{Delivered  March  j,  i860. ) 

If  the  Republicans,  who  think  slavery  is  wrong,  get 
possession  of  the  General  Government,  we  may  not 
root  out  the  evil  at  once,  but  may  at  least  prevent  its 
extension.  If  I  find  a  venomous  snake  lying  on  the 
open  prairie,  I  seize  the  first  stick  and  kill  him  at  once ; 
but  if  that  snake  is  in  bed  with  my  children,  I  must  be 
more   cautious; — I    shall,   in   striking   the  snake,    also 


98  SOME    CHARACTERISTICS   OF    LINCOLN. 

strike  the  children,  or  arouse  the  snake  to  bite  the 
children.  Slavery  is  the  venomous  snake  in  bed  with 
the  children.  But  if  the  question  is  whether  to  kill  it 
on  the  prairie  or  put  it  in  bed  with  other  children,  I 
am  inclined  to  think  we'd  kill  it. 

Another  illustration :  When  for  the  first  time  I  met 
Mr.  Clay,  the  other  day  in  the  cars,  in  front  of  us  sat 
an  old  gentleman  with  an  enormous  wen  upon  his 
neck.  Everybody  would  say  the  wen  was  a  great  evil, 
and  would  cause  the  man's  death  after  a  while;  but 
you  couldn't  cut  it  out,  for  he'd  bleed  to  death  in  a 
minute.  But  would  you  ingraft  the  seeds  of  that  wen 
on  the  necks  of  sound  and  healthy  men?  He  must 
endure  and  be  patient,  hoping  for  possible  relief.  The 
wen  represents  slavery  on  the  neck  of  this  country. 
This  only  applies  to  those  who  think  slavery  is  wrong. 
Those  who  think  it  right  would  consider  the  snake  a 
jewel  and  the  wen  an  ornament. 


SOME    CHARACTERISTICS   OF   LINCOLN. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  so  unlike  all  the  men  I  had  ever 
known  before  or  seen  or  known  since  that  there  is  no 
one  to  whom  I  can  compare  him.  In  all  his  habits  of 
eating,  sleeping,  reading,  conversation,  and  study  he 
was,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  regularly  irregular ;  that  is, 
he  had  no  stated  time  for  eating,  no  fixed  time  for 
going  to  bed,  none  for  getting  up.     No  course  of  read- 


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SOME    CHARACTERISTICS    OF    LINCOLN.  99 


ing  was  chalked  out.  He  read  law,  history,  philos- 
ophy, or  poetry;  Burns,  Byron,  Milton,  or  Shakespeare 
and  the  newspapers,  retaining  them  all  about  as  well 
as  an  ordinary  man  would  any  one  of  them  who  made 
only  one  at  a  time  his  study. 

I  once  remarked  to  him  that  his  mind  was  a  wonder 
to  me ;  that  impressions  were  easily  made  upon  it  and 
never  effaced.  "No,"  said  he,  "you  are  mistaken;  I 
am  slow  to  learn,  and  slow  to  forget  that  which  I  have 
learned.  My  mind  is  like  a  piece  of  steel — very  hard 
to  scratch  anything  on  it,  and  almost  impossible  after 
you  get  it  there  to  rub  it  out. ' '  I  give  this  as  his  own 
illustration  of  the  character  of  his  mental  faculties;  it 
is  as  good  as  any  I  have  seen  from  any  one. 

The  beauty  of  his  character  was  its  entire  simplicity. 
He  had  no  affectation  in  anything.  True  to  nature, 
true  to  himself,  he  was  true  to  everybody  and  every- 
thing around  him.  When  he  was  ignorant  on  any 
subject,  no  matter  how  simple  it  might  make  him 
appear,  he  was  always  willing  to  acknowledge  it.  His 
whole  aim  in  life  was  to  be  true  to  himself,  and,  being 
true  to  himself,  he  could  be  false  to  no  one. 

He  had  no  vices,  even  as  a  young  man.  Intense 
thought  with  him  was  the  rule,  and  not,  as  with  most 
of  us,  the  exception.  He  often  said  that  he  could 
think  better  after  breakfast,  and  better  walking  than 
sitting,  lying,  or  standing.  His  world-wide  reputation 
for  telling  anecdotes  and  telling  them  so  well  was,  in 
my  judgment,  necessary  to  his  very  existence.     Most 


IOO  FAREWELL    SPEECH. 

men  who  have  been  great  students,  such  as  he  was,  in 
their  hours  of  idleness  have  taken  to  the  bottle,  to 
cards,  or  dice.  He  had  no  fondness  for  any  of  these. 
Hence  he  sought  relaxation  in  anecdotes.  So  far  as  I 
now  remember  of  his  study  for  composition,  it  was  to 
make  short  sentences  and  a  compact  style.  Illustrative 
of  this  it  might  be  well  to  state  that  he  was  a  great 
admirer  of  the  style  of  John  C.  Calhoun.  I  remember 
reading  to  him  one  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  speeches  in 
reply  to  Mr.  Clay  in  the  Senate,  in  which  Mr.  Clay  had 
quoted  precedent.  Mr.  Calhoun  replied  (I  quote  from 
memory)  that  "to  legislate  upon  precedent  is  but  to 
make  the  error  of  yesterday  the  law  of  to-day."  Lin- 
coln thought  that  was  a  great  truth  and  grandly 
uttered. 

Unlike  all  other  men,  there  was  entire  harmony 
between  his  public  and  private  life.  He  must  believe 
he  was  right,  and  that  he  had  truth  and  justice  with 
him,  or  he  was  a  weak  man;    but  no  man  could  be 

stronger  if  he  thought  he  was  right. 

Joshua  F.  Speed. 
From  "Hemdon's  Life  of  Lincoln" 


FAREWELL   SPEECH. 

{Delivered  at  Springfield,  III.,  February  n,  1861.) 

My  Friends: — No  one,  not  in  my  position,  can 
appreciate  the  sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.  To  this 
people  I  owe  all  that  I  am.     Here  I  have  lived  more 


EXTRACT    FROM    SPEECH    AT    PITTSBURG.  IOI 

than  a  quarter  of  a  century;  here  my  children  were 
born,  and  here  one  of  them  lies  buried.  I  know  not 
how  soon  I  shall  see  you  again.  A  duty  devolves  upon 
me  which  is,  perhaps,  greater  than  that  which  has 
devolved  upon  any  other  man  since  the  days  of  Wash- 
ington. He  never  could  have  succeeded  except  for  the 
aid  of  Divine  Providence,  upon  which  he  at  all  times 
relied.  I  feel  that  I  cannot  succeed  without  the  same 
Divine  aid  which  sustained  him;  and  in  the  same 
Almighty  being  I  place  my  reliance  for  support,  and  I 
hope  you,  my  friends,  will  all  pray  that  I  may  receive 
that  Divine  assistance,  without  which  I  cannot  succeed, 
but  with  which  success  is  certain.  Again,  I  bid  you 
all  an  affectionate  farewell. 


EXTRACT     FROM     SPEECH     AT     PITTSBURG. 

{Delivered  on  his  way  to  Washington,  February,  1861.) 
In  every  short  address  I  have  made  to  the  people, 
and  in  every  crowd  through  which  I  have  passed  of 
late,  some  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  present  dis- 
tracted condition  of  the  country.  It  is  naturally 
expected  that  I  should  say  something  upon  this  sub- 
ject; but  to  touch  upon  it  at  all  would  involve  an 
elaborate  discussion  of  a  great  many  questions  and 
circumstances,  would  require  more  time  than  I  can  at 
present  command,  and  would,  perhaps,  unnecessarily 
commit  me  upon  matters  which  have  not  yet  fully 
developed  themselves. 


102  EXTRACT    FROM    SPEECH    AT    PITTSBURG. 

The  condition  of  the  country,  fellow-citizens,  is  an 
extraordinary  one,  and  fills  the  mind  of  every  patriot 
with  anxiety.  My  intention  is  to  give  this  subject  all 
the  consideration  which  I  possibly  can  before  I  speak 
fully  and  definitely  in  regard  to  it,  so  that  when  I  do 
speak  I  may  be  as  nearly  right  as  possible.  And  when 
I  do  speak,  fellow-citizens,  I  hope  to  say  nothing  in 
opposition  to  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  contrary  to 
the  integrity  of  the  Union,  or  which  will  in  any  way 
prove  inimical  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  or  to  the 
peace  of  the  whole  country.  And  furthermore,  when 
the  time  arrives  for  me  to  speak  on  this  great  subject, 
I  hope  to  say  nothing  which  will  disappoint  the  reason- 
able expectations  of  any  man,  or  disappoint  the  people 
generally  throughout  the  country,  especially  if  their 
expectations  have  been  based  upon  anything  which  I 
may  have  heretofore  said. 

Notwithstanding  the  troubles  across  the  river  [the 
speaker,  smiling,  pointed  southwardly  to  the  Mononga- 
hela  River],  there  is  really  no  crisis  springing  from 
anything  in  the  Government  itself.  In  plain  words, 
there  is  really  no  crisis  except  an  artificial  one.  What 
is  there  now  to  warrant  the  condition  of  affairs  pre- 
sented by  our  friends  "over  the  river"?  Take  even 
their  own  view  of  the  questions  involved,  and  there  is 
nothing  to  justify  the  course  which  they  are  pursuing. 
I  repeat  it,  then,  there  is  no  crisis,  except  such  a  one  as 
may  be  gotten  up  at  any  time  by  turbulent  men  aided 
by  designing  politicians.     My  advice,  then,  under  such 


SPEECH    AT    PHILADELPHIA.  103 

circumstances,  is  to  keep  cool.  If  the  great  American 
people  will  only  keep  their  temper  on  both  sides  of  the 
line,  the  trouble  will  come  to  an  end,  and  the  question 
which  now  distracts  the  country  will  be  settled  just  as 
surely  as  all  other  difficulties  of  like  character  which 
have  originated  in  this  Government  have  been  adjusted. 
Let  the  people  on  both  sides  keep  their  self-possession, 
and  just  as  other  clouds  have  cleared  away  in  due 
time,  so  will  this,  and  this  great  nation  shall  continue 
to  prosper  as  heretofore. 


SPEECH   AT    PHILADELPHIA. 

(February  21,  1861.) 

I  am  rilled  with  deep  emotion  at  finding  myself 
standing  here,  in  this  place,  where  were  collected  the 
wisdom,  the  patriotism,  the  devotion  to  principle,  from 
which  sprang  the  institutions  under  which  we  live. 
You  have  kindly  suggested  to  me  that  in  my  hands  is 
the  task  of  restoring  peace  to  the  present  distracted 
condition  of  the  country.  I  can  say  in  return,  sir, 
that  all  the  political  sentiments  I  entertain  have  been 
drawn,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  draw  them,  from 
the  sentiments  which  originated  and  were  given  to  the 
world  from  this  hall.  I  have  never  had  a  feeling 
politically  that  did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments 
embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have 
often  pondered  over  the  dangers  which  were  incurred 


104  SPEECH    AT    PHILADELPHIA. 

by  the  men  who  assembled  here,  and  framed  and 
adopted  that  Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have 
pondered  over  the  toils  that  were  endured  by  the 
officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  who  achieved  that 
independence.  I  have  often  inquired  of  myself  what 
great  principle  or  idea  it  was  that  kept  this  Con- 
federacy so  long  together.  It  was  not  the  mere  matter 
of  the  separation  of  the  colonies  from  the  mother-land, 
but  that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
which  gave  liberty,  not  alone  to  the  people  of  this 
country,  but,  I  hope,  to  the  world  for  all  future  time. 
It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the 
weight  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all  men. 
This  is  a  sentiment  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Now,  my  friends,  can  this  country  be 
saved  upon  this  basis?  If  it  can,  I  will  consider 
myself  one  of  the  happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I  can 
help  to  save  it.  If  it  cannot  be  saved  upon  that  prin- 
ciple, it  will  be  truly  awful.  But  if  this  country  can- 
not be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I  was 
about  to  say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on  this 
spot  than  surrender  it.  Now,  in  my  view  of  the 
present  aspect  of  affairs,  there  need  be  no  bloodshed 
or  war.  There  is  no  necessity  for  it.  I  am  not  in 
favor  of  such  a  course,  and  I  may  say,  in  advance, 
that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  Government,  and  then  it  will  be  compelled 
to  act  in  self-defense. 

My  friends,  this  is  wholly  an  unexpected  speech,  and 


THE    SITUATION    IN    l86l.  105 

I  did  not  expect  to  be  called  upon  to  say  a  word  when 
I  came  here.  I  supposed  it  was  merely  to  do  some- 
thing towards  raising  the  flag.  I  may,  therefore,  have 
said  something  indiscreet.  I  have  said  nothing  but 
what  I  am  willing  to  live  by,  and,  if  it  be  the  pleasure 
of  Almighty  God,  to  die  by. 


THE   SITUATION    IN    1861. 

The  situation  which  confronted  the  new  President 
was  appalling:  the  larger  part  of  the  South  in  open 
rebellion,  the  rest  of  the  slaveholding  States  wavering, 
preparing  to  follow ;  the  revolt  guided  by  determined, 
daring,  and  skillful  leaders;  the  Southern  people, 
apparently  full  of  enthusiasm  and  military  spirit,  rush- 
ing to  arms,  some  of  the  forts  and  arsenals  already  in 
their  possession ;  the  Government  of  the  Union,  before 
the  accession  of  the  new  President,  in  the  hands  of 
men  some  of  whom  actively  sympathized  with  the 
revolt,  while  others  were  hampered  by  their  traditional 
doctrines  in  dealing  with  it,  and  really  gave  it  aid  and 
comfort  by  their  irresolute  attitude;  all  the  depart- 
ments full  of  "Southern  sympathizers"  and  honey- 
combed with  disloyalty;  the  treasury  empty,  and  the 
public  credit  at  the  lowest  ebb;  the  arsenals  ill  sup- 
plied with  arms,  if  not  emptied  by  treacherous 
practices;  the  regular  army  of  insignificant  strength, 
dispersed  over  an  immense  surface,  and  deprived  of 
some  of  its  best  officers  by  defection ;  the  navy  small 


106  THE   SITUATION    IN    l86l. 

and  antiquated.  But  that  was  not  all.  The  threat  of 
disunion  had  so  often  been  resorted  to  by  the  slave 
power  in  years  gone  by  that  most  Northern  people  had 
ceased  to  believe  in  its  seriousness.  But  when  dis- 
union actually  appeared  as  a  stern  reality,  something 
like  a  chill  swept  through  the  whole  Northern  country. 
A  cry  for  union  and  peace  at  any  price  rose  on  all  sides. 
Democratic  partisanship  reiterated  this  cry  with 
vociferous  vehemence,  and  even  many  Republicans 
grew  afraid  of  the  victory  they  had  just  achieved  at  the 
ballot-box,  and  spoke  of  compromise.  The  country 
fairly  resounded  with  the  noise  of  "anti-coercion  meet- 
ings. ' '  Expressions  of  firm  resolution  from  determined 
anti-slavery  men  were  indeed  not  wanting,  but  they 
were  for  awhile  almost  drowned  by  a  bewildering  con- 
fusion of  discordant  voices.  Even  this  was  not  all. 
Potent  influences  in  Europe,  with  an  ill-concealed 
desire  for  the  permanent  disruption  of  the  American 
Union,  eagerly  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Southern 
seceders,  and  the  two  principal  maritime  powers  of  the 
Old  World  seemed  only  to  be  waiting  for  a  favorable 
opportunity  to  lend  them  a  helping  hand. 

This  was  the  state  of  things  to  be  mastered  by 
"Honest  Abe  Lincoln"  when  he  took  his  seat  in  the 
Presidential  chair, — "Honest  Abe  Lincoln, "  who  was 
so  good-natured  that  he  could  not  say  "no";  the  great- 
est achievement  in  whose  life  had  been  a  debate  on  the 
slavery  question ;  who  had  never  been  in  any  position 
of  power ;  who  was  without  the  slightest  experience  of 


THE    SITUATION    IN    l86l.  I07 

high  executive  duties,  and  who  had  only  a  speaking 
acquaintance  with  the  men  upon  whose  counsel  and 
cooperation  he  was  to  depend.  Nor  was  his  accession 
to  power  under  such  circumstances  greeted  with  gen- 
eral confidence  even  by  the  members  of  his  party. 
While  he  had  indeed  won  much  popularity,  many 
Republicans,  especially  among  those  who  had  advo- 
cated Seward's  nomination  for  the  Presidency,  saw  the 
simple  "Illinois  lawyer"  take  the  reins  of  government 
with  a  feeling  little  short  of  dismay.  The  orators  and 
journals  of  the  opposition  were  ridiculing  and  lam- 
pooning him  without  measure.  Many  people  actually 
wondered  how  such  a  man  could  dare  to  undertake  a 
task  which,  as  he  himself  had  said  to  his  neighbors  in 
his  parting  speech,  was  "more  difficult  than  that  of 
Washington  himself  had  been. ' ' 

But  Lincoln  brought  to  that  task,  aside  from  other 
uncommon  qualities,  the  first  requisite, — an  intuitive 
comprehension  of  its  nature.  While  he  did  not  indulge 
in  the  delusion  that  the  Union  could  be  maintained  or 
restored  without  a  conflict  of  arms,  he  could  indeed 
not  foresee  all  the  problems  he  would  have  to  solve. 
He  instinctively  understood,  however,  by  what  means 
that  conflict  would  have  to  be  conducted  by  the  govern- 
ment of  a  democracy.  He  knew  that  the  impending 
war,  whether  great  or  small,  would  not  be  like  a  for- 
eign war,  exciting  a  united  national  enthusiasm,  but  a 
civil  war,  likely  to  fan  to  uncommon  heat  the  animosi- 
ties of  party  even  in  the  localities  controlled  by  the 


108  THE   SITUATION    IN    l86l. 

Government;  that  this  war  would  have  to  be  carried 
on,  not  by  means  of  a  ready-made  machinery,  ruled  by 
an  undisputed,  absolute  will,  but  by  means  to  be  fur- 
nished by  the  voluntary  action  of  the  people : — armies 
to  be  formed  by  voluntary  enlistment ;  large  sums  of 
money  to  be  raised  by  the  people,  through  their  repre- 
sentatives, voluntarily  taxing  themselves;  trusts  of 
extraordinary  power  to  be  voluntarily  granted;  and 
war  measures,  not  seldom  restricting  the  rights  and 
liberties  to  which  the  citizen  was  accustomed,  to  be 
voluntarily  accepted  and  submitted  to  by  the  people, 
or  at  least  a  large  majority  of  them ; — and  that  this 
would  have  to  be  kept  up  not  merely  during  a  short 
period  of  enthusiastic  excitement,  but  possibly  through 
weary  years  of  alternating  success  and  disaster,  hope 
and  despondency.  He  knew  that  in  order  to  steer  this 
Government  by  public  opinion  successfully  through  all 
the  confusion  created  by  the  prejudices  and  doubts  and 
differences  of  sentiment  distracting  the  popular  mind, 
and  so  to  propitiate,  inspire,  mould,  organize,  unite, 
and  guide  the  popular  will  that  it  might  give  forth  all 
the  means  required  for  the  performance  of  his  great 
task,  he  would  have  to  take  into  account  all  the  influ- 
ences strongly  affecting  the  current  of  popular  thought 
and  feeling,  and  to  direct  while  appearing  to  obey. 

This  was  the  kind  of  leadership  he  intuitively  con- 
ceived to  be  needed  when  a  free  people  were  to  be  led 
forward  en  masse  to  overcome  a  great  common  danger 
under     circumstances     of     appalling     difficulty, — the 


FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  I09 

leadership  which  does  not  dash  ahead  with  brilliant 
daring,  no  matter  who  follows,  but  which  is  intent 
upon  rallying  all  the  available  forces,  gathering  in  the 
stragglers,  closing  up  the  column,  so  that  the  front 
may  advance  well  supported.  For  this  leadership 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  admirably  fitted, — better  than 
any  other  American  statesman  of  his  day;  for  he 
understood  the  plain  people,  with  all  their  loves  and 
hates,  their  prejudices  and  their  noble  impulses,  their 
weaknesses  and  their  strength,  as  he  understood  him- 
self, and  his  sympathetic  nature  was  apt  to  draw  their 

sympathy  to  him. 

Carl  Schurz. 
From  "Abraham  Lincoln." 


In  the  first  Inaugural  the  particularly  noticeable  things 
are  the  care  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  reiterates  and  de- 
fines his  position  on  the  slavery  question  and  the  pains  he 
takes  to  make  clear  that  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
zvas  the  momentous,  the  main  issue.  On  no  other  issue 
could  he  have  carried  the  war  through,  and  this  he  saw 
with  unerring  sagacity. — Ed. 

FIRST  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

{March  4,  1861. ) 
Fellow-Citizens  of  the  United  States: — In  com- 
pliance with  a  custom  as  old  as  the  Government  itself, 
I  appear  before  you  to  address  you  briefly,  and  to  take 
in  your  presence  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  Constitu- 


IIO  FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

tion  of  the  United  States  to  be  taken  by  the  President 
"before  he  enters  on  the  execution  of  his  office." 

I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  at  present  for  me  to 
discuss  those  matters  of  administration  about  which 
there  is  no  special  anxiety  or  excitement.  Apprehen- 
sion seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States  that  by  the  accession  of  a  Republican  adminis- 
tration their  property  and  their  peace  and  personal 
security  are  to  be  endangered.  There  has  never  been 
any  reasonable  cause  for  such  apprehension.  Indeed, 
the  most  ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has  all  the 
while  existed  and  been  open  to  their  inspection.  It  is 
found  in  nearly  all  the  published  speeches  of  him  who 
now  addresses  you.  I  do  but  quote  from  one  of  those 
speeches  when  I  declare  that  "I  have  no  purpose, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I 
have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination 
to  do  so."  Those  who  nominated  and  elected  me  did 
so  with  the  full  knowledge  that  I  had  made  this  and 
many  similar  declarations,  and  had  never  recanted 
them.  And,  more  than  this,  they  placed  in  the  plat- 
form for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a  law  to  themselves 
and  to  me,  the  clear  and  emphatic  resolution  which 
I  now  read : 

Resolved,  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  rights  of  the 
States,  and  especially  the  right  of  each  State  to  order  and  control 
its  own  domestic  institutions  according  to  its  own  judgment  ex- 
clusively, is  essential  to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  per- 
fection  and  endurance  of  our  political   fabric   depend,   and  we 


FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  til 

denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of  the  soil  of  any- 
State  or  Territory,  no  matter  under  what  pretext,  as  among  the 
gravest  of  crimes. 

I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments ;  and,  in  doing  so,  I 
only  press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most  con- 
clusive evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that 
the  property,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are  to 
be  in  anywise  endangered  by  the  now  incoming  admin- 
istration. 

I  add,  too,  that  all  the  protection  which,  consistently 
with  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  can  be  given,  will 
be  cheerfully  given  to  all  the  States  when  lawfully 
demanded,  for  whatever  cause,  as  cheerfully  to  one 
section  as  to  another. 

There  is  much  controversy  about  the  delivering  up 
of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor.  The  clause  I  now 
read  is  as  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution  as  any 

other  of  its  provisions : 

No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State  under  the  laws 
thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or 
regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but 
shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service 
or  labor  may  be  due. 

It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was 
intended  by  those  who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of 
what  we  call  fugitive  slaves;  and  the  intention  of  the 
lawgiver  is  the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear 
their  support  to  the  whole  Constitution — to  this  pro- 
vision as  much  as  to  any  other.  To  the  proposition, 
then,  that  slaves,  whose  cases  come  within  the  terms  of 
this   clause,  "shall  be  delivered  up"   their  oaths  are 


112  FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

unanimous.  Now,  if  they  would  make  the  effort  in 
good  temper,  could  they  not,  with  nearly  equal 
unanimity,  frame  and  pass  a  law  by  means  of  which  to 
keep  good  that  unanimous  oath? 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  whether  this 
clause  should  be  enforced  by  National  or  by  State 
authority;  but  surely  that  difference  is  not  a  very 
material  one.  If  the  slave  is  to  be  surrendered,  it  can 
be  of  but  little  consequence  to  him,  or  to  others,  by 
which  authority  it  is  done.  And  should  any  one,  in 
any  case,  be  content  that  this  oath  shall  go  unkept,  on 
a  merely  unsubstantial  controversy  as  to  how  it  shall 
be  kept? 

Again,  in  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all 
the  safeguards  of  liberty  known  in  civilized  and 
humane  jurisprudence  to  be  introduced  so  that  a  free 
man  be  not,  in  any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave?  And 
might  it  not  be  well  at  the  same  time  to  provide  by 
law  for  the  enforcement  of  that  clause  in  the  Constitu- 
tion which  guarantees  that  "the  citizens  of  each  State 
shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of 
citizens  in  the  several  States?" 

I  take  the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reser- 
vations and  with  no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitu- 
tion or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules.  And  while  I 
do  not  choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of  Congress 
as  proper  to  be  enforced,  I  do  suggest  that  it  will  be 
much  safer  for  all,  both  in  official  and  private  stations, 
to  conform  to  and  abide  by  all  those  acts  which  stand 


FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  II3 

unrepealed,  than  to  violate  any  of  them,  trusting  to  find 
impunity  in  having  them  held  to  be  unconstitutional. 

It  is  seventy-two  years  since  the  first  inauguration  of 
a  President  under  our  National  Constitution.  During 
that  period  fifteen  different  and  very  distinguished  citi- 
zens have,  in  succession,  administered  the  executive 
branch  of  the  Government.  They  have  conducted  it 
through  many  perils,  and  generally  with  great  success. 
Yet,  with  all  this  scope  of  precedent,  I  now  enter  upon 
the  same  task  for  the  brief  constitutional  term  of  four 
years,  under  great  and  peculiar  difficulties. 

A  disruption  of  the  Federal  Union,  heretofore  only 
menaced,  is  now  formidably  attempted.  I  hold  that, 
in  contemplation  of  universal  law,  and  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpetual.  Perpetuity 
is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  fundamental  law  of 
all  national  governments.  It  is  safe  to  assert  that  no 
government  proper  ever  had  a  provision  in  its  organic 
law  for  its  own  termination.  Continue  to  execute  all 
the  express  provisions  of  our  National  Constitution, 
and  the  Union  will  endure  forever — it  being  impossible 
to  destroy  it  except  by  some  action  not  provided  for  in 
the  instrument  itself. 

Again,  if  the  United  States  be  not  a  government 
proper,  but  an  association  of  States  in  the  nature  of  a 
contract  merely,  can  it,  as  a  contract,  be  peaceably 
unmade  by  less  than  all  the  parties  who  made  it?  One 
party  to  a  contract  may  violate  it — break  it,  so  to  speak, 
but  does  it  not   require   all  to  lawfully  rescind    it? 


1 14  FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

Descending  from  these  general  principles,  we  find  the 
proposition  that,  in  legal  contemplation,  the  Union  is 
perpetual,  confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  Union  itself. 

The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitution.  It 
was  formed,  in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Association  in 
1774.  It  was  matured  and  continued  by  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  in  1776.  It  was  further  matured, 
and  the  faith  of  all  the  then  thirteen  States  expressly 
plighted  and  engaged  that  it  should  be  perpetual,  by 
the  Articles  of  the  Confederation,  in  1778.  And, 
finally,  in  1787,  one  of  the  declared  objects  for  ordain- 
ing and  establishing  the  Constitution  was  "to  form  a 
more  perfect  Union."  But  if  the  destruction  of  the 
Union  by  one,  or  by  a  part  only,  of  the  States  be  law- 
fully possible,  the  Union  is  less  perfect  than  before  the 
Constitution,  having  lost  the  vital  element  of  per- 
petuity. 

It  follows  from  these  views  that  no  State,  upon  its 
own  mere  motion,  can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union; 
that  resolves  and  ordinances  to  that  effect  are  legally 
void;  and  that  acts  of  violence,  within  any  State  or 
States,  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are 
insurrectionary  or  revolutionary,  according  to  circum- 
stances. 

I  therefore  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken ;  and  to  the  extent 
of  my  ability  I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitution  itself 
expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of  the  Union 
shall  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States.     Doing 


FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  115 

this  I  deem  to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my  part ;  and 
I  shall  perform  it,  so  far  as  practicable,  unless  my 
rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold 
the  requisition  means,  or  in  some  authoritative  manner 
direct  the  contrary.  I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded 
as  a  menace,  but  only  as  the  declared  purpose  of  the 
Union  that  it  will  constitutionally  defend  and  maintain 
itself. 

In  doing  this  there  needs  to  be  no  bloodshed  or 
violence ;  and  there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  is  forced 
upon  the  National  authority.  The  power  confided  to 
me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  prop- 
erty and  places  belonging  to  the  Government,  and  to 
collect  the  duties  and  imposts ;  but  beyond  what  may 
be  necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no 
invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the 
people  anywhere.  Where  hostility  to  the  United  States 
in  any  interior  locality  shall  be  so  great  and  so  uni- 
versal as  to  prevent  competent  resident  citizens  from 
holding  the  Federal  offices,  there  will  be  no  attempt  to 
force  obnoxious  strangers  among  the  people  for  that 
object.  While  the  strict  legal  right  may  exist  in  the 
Government  to  enforce  the  exercise  of  these  offices, 
the  attempt  to  do  so  would  be  so  irritating,  and  so 
nearly  impracticable  withal,  that  I  deem  it  best  to 
forego  for  the  time  the  uses  of  such  offices. 

The  mails,  unless  repelled,  will  continue  to  be  fur- 
nished in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  So  far  as  possible, 
the  people  everywhere  shall  have  that  sense  of  perfect 


Il6  FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

security  which  is  most  favorable  to  calm  thought  and 
reflection.  The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed 
unless  current  events  and  experience  shall  show  a 
modification  or  change  to  be  proper,  and  in  every  case 
and  exigency  my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised 
according  to  the  circumstances  actually  existing,  and 
with  a  view  and  a  hope  of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the 
National  troubles,  and  the  restoration  of  fraternal 
sympathies  and  affections. 

That  there  are  persons  in  one  section  or  another  who 
seek  to  destroy  the  Union  at  all  events,  and  are  glad 
of  any  pretext  to  do  it,  I  will  neither  affirm  nor  deny ; 
but  if  there  be  such,  I  need  address  no  word  to  them. 
To  those,  however,  who  really  love  the  Union,  may  I 
not  speak?  Before  entering  upon  so  grave  a  matter 
as  the  destruction  of  our  National  fabric,  with  all  its 
benefits,  its  memories,  and  its  hopes,  would  it  not  be 
wise  to  ascertain  precisely  why  we  do  it?  Will  you 
hazard  so  desperate  a  step  while  any  portion  of  the  ills 
you  fly  from  have  no  real  existence?  Will  you,  while 
the  certain  ills  you  fly  to  are  greater  than  all  the  real 
ones  you  fly  from — will  you  risk  the  commission  of  so 
fearful  a  mistake? 

All  profess  to  be  content  in  the  Union,  if  all  consti- 
tutional rights  can  be  maintained.  Is  it  true,  then, 
that  any  right,  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution,  has 
been  denied?  I  think  not.  Happily  the  human  mind 
is  so  constituted  that  no  party  can  reach  to  the  audacity 
of  doing  this.     Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single  instance 


FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  117 

in  which  a  plainly-written  provision  of  the  Constitu- 
tion has  ever  been  denied.  If,  by  the  mere  force  of 
numbers,  a  majority  should  deprive  a  minority  of  any 
clearly- written  constitutional  right,  it  might,  in  a  moral 
point  of  view,  justify  revolution — it  certainly  would  if 
such  right  were  a  vital  one.  But  such  is  not  our  case. 
All  the  vital  rights  of  minorities  and  of  individuals  are 
so  plainly  assured  to  them  by  affirmations  and  nega- 
tions, guaranties  and  prohibitions,  in  the  Constitution, 
that  controversies  never  arise  concerning  them.  But 
no  organic  law  can  ever  be  framed  with  a  provision 
specifically  applicable  to  every  question  which  may 
occur  in  practical  administration.  No  foresight  can 
anticipate,  nor  any  document  of  reasonable  length 
contain,  express  provisions  for  all  possible  questions. 
Shall  fugitives  from  labor  be  surrendered  by  National 
or  by  State  authorities?  The  Constitution  does  not 
expressly  say.  May  Congress  prohibit  slavery  in  the 
Territories?  The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say. 
Must  Congress  protect  slavery  in  the  Territories?  The 
Constitution  does  not  expressly  say. 

From  questions  of  this  class  spring  all  our  constitu- 
tional controversies,  and  we  divide  upon  them  into 
majorities  and  minorities.  If  the  minority  will  not 
acquiesce,  the  majority  must,  or  the  Government  must 
cease.  There  is  no  other  alternative;  for  continuing 
the  Government  is  acquiescence  on  one  side  or  the 
other.  If  a  minority  in  such  case  will  secede  rather 
than  acquiesce,  they  make  a  precedent  which  in  turn 


Il8  FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

will  divide  and  ruin  them ;  for  a  minority  of  their  own 
will  secede  from  them  whenever  a  majority  refuses  to 
be  controlled  by  such  minority.  For  instance,  why 
may  not  any  portion  of  a  new  Confederacy,  a  year  or 
two  hence,  arbitrarily  secede  again,  precisely  as  por- 
tions of  the  present  Union  now  claim  to  secede  from  it? 
All  who  cherish  disunion  sentiments  are  now  being 
educated  to  the  exact  temper  of  doing  this.  Is  there 
such  perfect  identity  of  interests  among  the  States  to 
compose  a  new  Union  as  to  produce  harmony  only,  and 
prevent  renewed  secession?  Plainly,  the  central  idea 
of  secession  is  the  essence  of  anarchy.  A  majority 
held  in  restraint  by  constitutional  checks  and  limita- 
tions, and  always  changing  easily  with  deliberate 
changes  of  popular  opinions  and  sentiments,  is  the 
only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people.  Whoever  rejects  it 
does,  of  necessity,  fly  to  anarchy  or  to  despotism. 
Unanimity  is  impossible ;  the  rule  of  a  minority,  as  a 
permanent  arrangement,  is  wholly  inadmissible;  so 
that,  rejecting  the  majority  principle,  anarchy  or 
despotism  in  some  form  is  all  that  is  left. 

I  do  not  forget  the  position,  assumed  by  some,  that 
constitutional  questions  are  to  be  decided  by  the 
Supreme  Court;  nor  do  I  deny  that  such  decisions 
must  be  binding,  in  any  case,  upon  the  parties  to  a 
suit,  as  to  the  object  of  that  suit,  while  they  are  also 
entitled  to  a  very  high  respect  and  consideration  in  all 
parallel  cases  by  all  other  departments  of  the  Govern- 
ment.    And  while  it  is  obviously  possible  that  such 


FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  119 

decision  may  be  erroneous  in  any  given  case,  still  the 
evil  effect  following  it,  being  limited  to  that  particular 
case,  with  the  chance  that  it  may  be  overruled,  and 
never  become  a  precedent  for  other  cases,  can  better 
be  borne  than  could  the  evils  of  a  different  practice. 
At  the  same  time,  the  candid  citizen  must  confess  that 
if  the  policy  of  the  Government,  upon  vital  questions 
affecting  the  whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed 
by  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  instant  they 
are  made  in  ordinary  litigation  between  parties  in  per- 
sonal actions,  the  people  will  have  ceased  to  be  their 
own  rulers,  having  to  that  extent  practically  resigned 
their  Government  into  the  hands  of  that  eminent 
tribunal.  Nor  is  there  in  this  view  any  assault  upon 
the  Court  or  the  Judges.  It  is  a  duty  from  which  they 
may  not  shrink,  to  decide  cases  properly  brought 
before  them,  and  it  is  no  fault  of  theirs  if  others  seek 
to  turn  their  decisions  to  political  purposes. 

One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right, 
and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it 
is  wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the 
only  substantial  dispute.  The  fugitive  slave  clause  of 
the  Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the  suppression  of 
the  foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced,  per- 
haps, as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where  the 
moral  sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the  law 
itself.  The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry 
legal  obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in 
each.     This,  I  think,  cannot  be  perfectly  cured;  and 


\ 


I  20  FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

it  would  be  worse  in  both  cases  after  the  separation  of 
the  sections  than  before.  The  foreign  slave-trade,  now 
imperfectly  suppressed,  would  be  ultimately  revived 
without  restriction  in  one  section;  while  fugitive 
slaves,  now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be 
surrendered  at  all  by  the  other. 

Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  can- 
not  remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other, 
nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between  them.  A  hus- 
band and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the 
presence  and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other ;  but  the 
different  parts  of  our  country  cannot  do  this.  They 
I  cannot  but  remain  face  to  face,  and  intercourse,  either 
amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  Is 
it  possible,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more 
advantageous  or  more  satisfactory  after  separation  than 
before?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends 
can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully 
enforced  between  aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends? 
Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  cannot  fight  always ;  and 
when,  after  much  loss  on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on 
either,  you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  old  questions  as 
to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again  upon  you. 

This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the 
people  who  inhabit  it.  Whenever  they  shall  grow 
weary  of  the  existing  government  they  can  exercise 
their  constitutional  right  of  amending,  or  their  revolu- 
tionary right  to  dismember  or  overthrow  it.  I  cannot 
be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  many  worthy  and  patriotic 


FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  121 

citizens  are  desirous  of  having  the  National  Constitu- 
tion amended.  While  I  make  no  recommendation  of 
amendment,  I  fully  recognize  the  full  authority  of  the 
people  over  the  whole  subject,  to  be  exercised  in  either 
of  the  modes  prescribed  in  the  instrument  itself ;  and 
I  should,  under  existing  circumstances,  favor  rather 
than  oppose  a  fair  opportunity  being  afforded  the 
people  to  act  upon  it.  I  will  venture  to  add,  that  to 
me  the  Convention  mode  seems  preferable,  in  that  it 
allows  amendments  to  originate  with  the  people  them- 
selves, instead  of  only  permitting  them  to  take  or 
reject  propositions  originated  by  others,  not  especially 
chosen  for  the  purpose,  and  which  might  not  be  pre- 
cisely such  as  they  would  wish  either  to  accept 
or  refuse.  I  understand  a  proposed  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  (which  amendment,  however,  I  have 
not  seen)  has  passed  Congress,  to  the  effect  that  the 
Federal  Government  shall  never  interfere  with  the 
domestic  institutions  of  the  States,  including  that  of 
persons  held  to  service.  To  avoid  misconstruction  of 
what  I  have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose,  not  to 
speak  of  particular  amendments,  so  far  as  to  say  that, 
holding  such  a  provision  to  now  be  implied  constitu- 
tional law,  I  have  no  objection  to  its  being  made 
express  and  irrevocable. 

The  Chief  Magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from 
the  people,  and  they  have  conferred  none  upon  him  to 
fix  the  terms  for  the  separation  of  the  States.  The 
people  themselves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose ;  but 


122  FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

the  Executive,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His 
duty  is  to  administer  the  present  government,  as  it 
came  to  his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by 
him,  to  his  successor.  Why  should  there  not  be  a 
patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate  justice  of  the  people? 
Is  there  any  better  or  equal  hope  in  the  world?  In  our 
present  differences  is  either  party  without  faith  of 
being  in  the  right?  If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  nations, 
with  his  eternal  truth  and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of 
the  North,  or  on  yours  of  the  South,  that  truth  and 
that  justice  will  surely  prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this 
great  tribunal  of  the  American  people.  By  the  frame 
of  the  government  under  which  we  live,  this  same 
people  have  wisely  given  their  public  servants  but  little 
power  for  mischief;  and  have,  with  equal  wisdom, 
provided  for  the  return  of  that  little  to  their  own 
hands  at  very  short  intervals.  While  the  people  retain 
their  virtue  and  vigilance,  no  administration,  by  any 
extreme  of  wickedness  or  folly,  can  very  seriously 
injure  the  government  in  the  short  space  of  four  years. 
My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well 
upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost 
by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry  any  of 
you,  in  hot  haste,  to  a  step  which  you  would  never  take 
deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated  by  taking 
time ;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated  by  it.  Such 
of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied,  still  have  the  old  Consti- 
tution unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive  point,  the 
laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it;   while  the  new 


FIRST    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  1 23 

administration  will  have  no  immediate  power,  if  it 
would,  to  change  either.  If  it  were  admitted  that  yon 
who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dispute, 
there  is  still  no  single  reason  for  precipitate  action. 
Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a  firm  reliance 
on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this  favored  land, 
are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the  best  way,  all  our 
present  difficulties. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen, 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 
The  Government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have 
no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors. 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the 
Government,  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one 
to  "preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it." 

I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but 
friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion 
may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of 
affection.  The  mystic  cords  of  memory,  stretching 
from  every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave,  to  every  liv- 
ing heart  and  hearthstone,  all  over  this  broad  land, 
will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of 
our  nature. 

^*#  When  Mr.  Lincoln  was  preparing  the  foregoing  speech,  Mr. 
Seward  submitted  two  separate  drafts  for  a  closing  paragraph. 
The  second  of  these,  containing  the  thought  adopted  by  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, was  as  follows : 

"I  close.  We  are  not,  we  must  not  be,  aliens  or  enemies,  but 
fellow-countrymen  and  brethren.  Although  passion  has  strained 
our  bonds  of  affection  too  hardly,  they  must  not,  I  am  sure  they 


124  ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN. 

will  not,  be  broken.  The  mystic  chords  which,  proceeding  from 
so  many  battlefields  and  so  many  patriot  graves,  pass  through  all 
the  hearts  and  all  hearths  in  this  broad  continent  of  ours,  will 
yet  again  harmonize  in  their  ancient  music  when  breathed  upon 
by  the  guardian  angel  of  the  nation." 

A  comparison  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  closing  paragraph  with  that 
suggested  by  Mr.  Seward  will  give  some  idea  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
terse,  nervous  and  compact  style. — Ed. 


ESTIMATE    OF   LINCOLN. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  perceptions  were  slow,  cold,  clear, 
and  exact.  Everything  came  to  him  in  its  precise 
shape  and  color.  To  some  men  the  world  of  matter 
and  of  man  comes  ornamented  with  beauty,  life,  and 
action;  and  hence  more  or  less  false  and  inexact.  No 
lurking  illusion  or  other  error,  false  in  itself  and  clad 
for  the  moment  in  robes  of  splendor,  ever  passed 
undetected  or  unchallenged  over  the  threshold  of  his 
mind — that  point  which  divides  vision  from  the 
realm  and  home  of  thought.  Names  to  him  were 
nothing,  and  titles  naught — assumption  always  stand- 
ing back  abashed  at  his  cold,  intellectual  glare. 
Neither  his  perceptions  nor  intellectual  vision  were 
perverted,  distorted,  or  diseased.  He  saw  all  things 
through  a  perfect  mental  lens.  There  was  no  diffrac- 
tion or  refraction  there.  He  was  not  impulsive,  fanci- 
ful, or  imaginative;  but  cold,  calm,  and  precise.  He 
threw  his  whole  mental  light  around  the  object,  and, 
after  a  time,  substance  and  quality  stood  apart,  form 
and  color  took  their  appropriate  places,  and  all  was 


ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN.  125 

clear  and  exact  in  his  mind.  His  fault,  if  any,  was 
that  he  saw  things  less  than  they  really  were;  less 
beautiful  and  more  frigid.  He  crushed  the  unreal, 
the  inexact,  the  hollow,  and  the  sham.  He  saw  things 
in  rigidity  rather  than  in  vital  action.  He  saw  what 
no  man  could  dispute,  but  he  failed  to  see  what  might 
have  been  seen. 

Remembering  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind  moved 
logically,  slowly,  and  cautiously,  the  question  of  his 
will  and  its  power  is  easily  solved.  Although  he 
cared  but  little  for  simple  facts,  rules,  and  methods, 
he  did  care  for  the  truth  and  right  of  principle.  In 
debate  he  courteously  granted  all  the  forms  and  non- 
essential things  to  his  opponent.  Sometimes  he 
yielded  nine  points  out  of  ten.  The  nine  he  brushed 
aside  as  husks  or  rubbish ;  but  the  tenth,  being  a  ques- 
tion of  substance,  he  clung  to  with  all  his  might.  On 
the  underlying  principles  of  truth  and  justice  his  will 
was  as  firm  as  steel  and  as  tenacious  as  iron.  It  was 
as  solid,  real,  and  vital  as  an  idea  on  which  the  world 
turns.  He  scorned  to  support  or  adopt  an  untrue 
position,  in  proportion  as  his  conscience  prevented 
him  from  doing  an  unjust  thing.  Ask  him  to  sacri- 
fice in  the  slightest  degree  his  convictions  of  truth — as 
he  was  asked  to  do  when  he  made  his  "house-divided- 
against-itself  speech" — and  his  soul  would  have 
exclaimed  with  indignant  scorn,  "The  world  perish 
first!"     Such  was  Lincoln's  will.     Because  on  one  line 


126  ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN. 

of  questions — the  non-essential — he  was  pliable,  and 
on  the  other  he  was  as  immovable  as  the  rocks,  have 
arisen  the  contradictory  notions  prevalent  regarding 
him.  It  only  remains  to  say  that  he  was  inflexible 
and  unbending  in  human  transactions  when  it  was 
necessary  to  be  so,  and  not  otherwise.  At  one 
moment  he  was  pliable  and  expansive  as  gentle  air;  at 
the  next  as  tenacious  and  unyielding  as  gravity  itself. 

As  illustrative  of  a  combination  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
organization,  it  may  be  said  that  his  eloquence  lay  in 
the  strength  of  his  logical  faculty,  his  supreme  power 
of  reasoning,  his  great  understanding,  and  his  love  of 
principle ;  in  his  clear  and  accurate  vision ;  in  his  cool 
and  masterly  statement  of  principles  around  which  the 
issues  gather;  and  in  the  statement  of  those  issues  and 
the  grouping  of  the  facts  that  are  to  carry  conviction 
to  the  minds  of  men  of  every  grade  of  intelligence. 
He  was  so  clear  that  he  could  not  be  misunderstood 
or  long  misrepresented.  He  stood  square  and  bolt 
upright  to  his  convictions,  and  any  one  who  listened 
to  him  would  be  convinced  that  he  formed  his  thoughts 
and  utterances  by  them.  His  mind  was  not  exactly  a 
wide,  broad,  generalizing,  and  comprehensive  mind, 
nor  yet  a  versatile,  quick,  and  subtle  one,  bounding 
here  and  there  as  emergencies  demanded ;  but  it  was 
deep,   enduring,   strong,  like  a  majestic  machine  run- 


ning in  deep  iron  grooves  with  heavy  flanges  on  its 
wheels. 


ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN.  I2f 

Mr.  Lincoln  himself  was  a  very  sensitive  man,  and 
hence,  in  dealing  with  others,  he  avoided  wounding 
their  hearts  or  puncturing  their  sensibility.  He  was 
unusually  considerate  of  the  feelings  of  other  men, 
regardless  of  their  rank,  condition  or  station.  At  first 
sight  he  struck  one  with  his  plainness,  simplicity  of 
manner,  sincerity,  candor,  and  truthfulness.  He  had 
no  double  interests  and  no  overwhelming  dignity  with 
which  to  chill  the  air  around  his  visitor.  He  was 
always  easy  of  approach  and  thoroughly  democratic. 
He  seemed  to  throw  a  charm  around  every  man  who 
ever  met  him.  To  be  in  his  presence  was  a  pleasure, 
and  no  man  ever  left  his  company  with  injured  feel- 
ings unless  most  richly  deserved. 

The  universal  testimony,  "He  is  an  honest  man," 
gave  him  a  firm  hold  on  the  masses,  and  they  trusted 
him  with  a  blind  religious  faith.  His  sad,  melancholy 
face  excited  their  sympathy,  and  when  the  dark  days 
came  it  was  their  heartstrings  that  entwined  and  sus- 
tained him.  Sympathy,  we  are  told,  is  one  of  the 
strongest  and  noblest  incentives  to  human  action. 
With  the  sympathy  and  love  of  the  people  to  sustain 
him,  Lincoln  had  unlimited  power  over  them;  he 
threw  an  invisible  and  weightless  harness  over  them, 
and  drove  them  through  disaster  and  desperation  to 
final  victory.  The  trust  and  worship  by  the  people  of 
Lincoln  were  the  result  of  his  simple  character.  He 
held  himself  not  aloof  from  the  masses.  He  became 
one  of  them.      They  feared  together,  they  struggled 


128  ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN. 

together,  they  hoped  together;  thus  melted  and 
molded  into  one,  they  became  one  in  thought,  one  in 
will,  one  in  action.  If  Lincoln  cautiously  awaited  the 
full  development  of  the  last  fact  in  the  great  drama 
before  he  acted,  when  longer  waiting  would  be  a 
crime,  he  knew  that  the  people  were  determinedly  at 
his  back.  Thus,  when  a  blow  was  struck,  it  came  with 
the  unerring  aim  and  power  of  a  bolt  from  heaven.  A 
natural  king — not  ruling  men,  but  leading  them  along 
the  drifts  and  trends  of  their  own  tendencies,  always 
keeping  in  mind  the  consent  of  the  governed,  he 
developed  what  the  future  historian  will  call  the 
sublimest  order  of  conservative  statesmanship. 

Whatever  of  life,  vigor,  force,  and  power  of  elo- 
quence his  peculiar  qualities  gave  him;  whatever 
there  was  in  a  fair,  manly,  honest,  and  impartial 
administration  of  justice  under  law  to  all  men  at  all 
times;  whatever  there  was  in  a  strong  will  in  the  right 
governed  by  tenderness  and  mercy;  whatever  there 
was  in  toil  and  sublime  patience ;  whatever  there  was 
in  these  things  or  a  wise  combination  of  them,  Lincoln 
is  justly  entitled  to  in  making  the  impartial  verdict  of 
history.  These  limit  and  define  him  as  a  statesman, 
as  an  orator,  as  an  executive  of  the  nation,  and  as  a 
man.  They  developed  in  all  the  walks  of  his  life ;  they 
were  his  law ;  they  were  his  nature,  they  were  Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

William  H.  Herndon. 
From  "Life  of  Lincoln'' 


LINCOLN'S    MANAGEMENT    OF    MEN.  1 29 


LINCOLN'S    MANAGEMENT   OF   MEN. 

In  his  conduct  of  the  war  he  acted  upon  the  theory 
that  but  one  thing  was  necessary,  and  that  was  a 
united  North.  He  had  all  shades  of  sentiments  and 
opinions  to  deal  with,  and  the  consideration  was 
always  presented  to  his  mind,  how  can  I  hold  these 
discordant  elements  together?  It  was  here  that  he 
located  his  own  greatness  as  a  President.  One  time, 
about  the  middle  of  the  war,  I  left  his  house  about  n 
o'clock  at  night,  at  the  Soldiers'  Home.  We  had  been 
discussing  the  discords  in  the  country,  and  particularly 
the  States  of  Missouri  and  Kentucky.  As  we 
separated  at  the  door  he  said,  "I  may  not  have  made 
as  great  a  President  as  some  other  men,  but  I  believe 
I  have  kept  these  discordant  elements  together  as  well 
as  any  one  could."  Hence,  in  dealing  with  men  he 
was  a  trimmer,  and  such  a  trimmer  the  world  has 
never  seen.  Halifax,  who  was  great  in  his  day  as  a 
trimmer,  would  blush  by  the  side  of  Lincoln;  yet 
Lincoln  never  trimmed  in  principles,  it  was  only  in  his 
conduct  with  men.  He  used  the  patronage  of  his 
office  to  feed  the  hunger  of  these  various  factions. 
Weed  always  declared  that  he  kept  a  regular  account- 
book  of  his  appointments  in  New  York,  dividing  his 
various  favors  so  as  to  give  each  faction  more  than  it 
could  get  from  any  other  source,  yet  never  enough  to 
satisfy  its  appetite. 


I3O  LINCOLN  S    MANAGEMENT    OF    MEN. 

They  all  had  access  to  him,  they  all  received  favors 
from  him,  and  they  all  complained  of  ill  treatment; 
but  while  unsatisfied,  they  all  had  "large  expecta- 
tions, ' '  and  saw  in  him  the  chance  of  obtaining  more 
than  from  any  one  else  whom  they  could  be  sure  of 
getting  in  his  place.  He  used  every  force  to  the  best 
possible  advantage.  He  never  wasted  anything,  and 
would  always  give  more  to  his  enemies  than  he  would 
to  his  friends ;  and  the  reason  was,  because  he  never 
had  anything  to  spare,  and  in  the  close  calculation  of 
attaching  the  factions  to  him,  he  counted  upon  the 
abstract  affection  of  his  friends  as  an  element  to  be 
offset  against  some  gift  with  which  he  must  appease 
his  enemies.  Hence,  there  was  always  some  truth  in 
the  charge  of  his  friends  that  he  failed  to  reciprocate 
their  devotion  with  his  favors.  The  reason  was,  that 
he  had  only  just  so  much  to  give  away — "He  always 
had  more  horses  than  oats." 

An  adhesion  of  all  forces  was  indispensable  to  his 
success  and  the  success  of  the  country ;  hence  he  hus- 
banded his  means  with  the  greatest  nicety  of  calcula- 
tion. Adhesion  was  what  he  wanted;  if  he  got  it 
gratuitously  he   never    wasted  his    substance  paying 

for  it. 

Leonard  Swett. 
From  "Herndo7i,s  Life  of  Lincoln" 


A    PROCLAMATION.  131 


A   PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  the  laws  of  the  United  States  have  been 
for  some  time  past  and  now  are  opposed,  and  the  exe- 
cution thereof  obstructed,  in  the  States  of  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  and  Texas,  by  combinations  too  powerful  to 
be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary  course  of  judicial  pro- 
ceedings, or  by  the  powers  vested  in  the  marshals  by 
law; 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  in  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested 
by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  have  thought  fit 
to  call  forth,  and  hereby  do  call  forth,  the  militia  of 
the  several  States  of  the  Union,  to  the  aggregate 
number  of  seventy-five  thousand,  in  order  to  suppress 
said  combinations,  and  to  cause  the  laws  to  be  duly 
executed. 

The  details  for  this  object  will  be  immediately  com- 
municated to  the  State  authorities  through  the  War 
Department. 

I  appeal  to  all  loyal  citizens  to  favor,  facilitate, 
and  aid  this  effort  to  maintain  the  honor,  the  integ- 
rity, and  the  existence  of  our  National  Union,  and  the 
perpetuity  of  popular  government;  and  to  redress 
wrongs  already  long  enough  endured. 

I  deem  it  proper  to  say  that  the  first  service  assigned 
to  the  forces  hereby  called  forth  will  probably  be  to 


132  A    PROCLAMATION. 

repossess  the  forts,  places,  and  property  which  have 
been  seized  from  the  Union;  and  in  every  event  the 
utmost  care  will  be  observed,  consistently  with  the 
objects  aforesaid,  to  avoid  any  devastation,  any 
destruction  of  or  interference  with  property,  or  any 
disturbance  of  peaceful  citizens  of  any  part  of  the 
country. 

And  I  hereby  command  the  persons  composing  the 
combinations  aforesaid  to  disperse  and  retire  peaceably 
to  their  respective  abodes,  within  twenty  days  from 
this  date. 

Deeming  that  the  present  condition  of  public  affairs 
presents  an  extraordinary  occasion,  I  do  hereby,  in 
virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  by  the  Constitution, 
convene  both  Houses  of  Congress.  The  Senators  and 
Representatives  are  therefore  summoned  to  assemble  at 
their  respective  chambers  at  twelve  o'clock  noon,  on 
Thursday,  the  fourth  day  of  July  next,  then  and  there 
to  consider  and  determine  such  measures  as,  in  their 
wisdom,  the  public  safety  and  interest  may  seem  to 
demand. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand, 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  fifteenth  day 
of  April,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-one,  and  of  the  independence  of 
the  United  States  the  eighty-fifth. 

By  the  President :  Abraham   Lincoln. 

William  H.   Seward,  Secretary  of  State, 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  I$3 

The  following  is  President  Lincoln's  first  message  to 
Congress.  It  is  remarkable  (/)  as  a  lucid  statement  of 
the  condition  of  affairs  fuly,  1861,  (2)  as  a  reiteration  of 
his  own  position  and  that  of  his  party,  (j)  as  a  vindica- 
tion of  the  policy  outlined  in  his  inaugural,  and  {4)  as 
an  exposition  of  the  meaning  of  the  conflict,  not  only  to 
the  American  Republic,  but  to  republican  government 
everywhere.  — Ed. 

MESSAGE   TO   CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL 

SESSION. 

Fellow-Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives: — Having  been  convened  on  an 
extraordinary  occasion,  as  authorized  by  the  Constitu- 
tion, your  attention  is  not  called  to  any  ordinary  sub- 
ject of  legislation. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  Presidential  term, 
four  months  ago,  the  functions  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment were  found  to  be  generally  suspended  within  the 
several  States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  excepting  only 
those  of  the  Post-office  Department. 

Within  these  States,  all  the  Forts,  Arsenals,  Dock- 
Yards,  Custom-Houses,  and  the  like,  including  the 
movable  and  stationary  property  in  and  about  them, 
had  been  seized,  and  were  held  in  open  hostility  to 
this  Government,  excepting  only  Forts  Pickens,  Tay- 
lor, and  Jefferson,  on  and  near  the  Florida  coast,  and 


134  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

Fort  Sumter,  in  Charleston  harbor,  South  Carolina. 
The  forts  thus  seized  had  been  put  in  improved  condi- 
tion, new  ones  had  been  built,  and  armed  forces  had 
been  organized  and  were  organizing,  all  avowedly 
with  the  same  hostile  purpose. 

The  forts  remaining  in  possession  of  the  Federal 
Government  in  and  near  these  States  were  either 
besieged  or  menaced  by  warlike  preparations,  and 
especially  Fort  Sumter  was  nearly  surrounded  by  well- 
protected  hostile  batteries,  with  guns  equal  in  quality 
to  the  best  of  its  own,  and  outnumbering  the  latter  as 
perhaps  ten  to  one.  A  disproportionate  share  of  the 
Federal  muskets  and  rifles  had  somehow  found  their 
way  into  these  States,  and  had  been  seized  to  be  used 
against  the  Government. 

Accumulations  of  the  public  revenue  lying  within 
them  had  been  seized  for  the  same  object.  The 
navy  was  scattered  in  distant  seas,  leaving  but  a 
very  small  part  of  it  within  the  immediate  reach 
of  the  Government.  Officers  of  the  Federal  Army  and 
Navy  had  resigned  in  great  numbers;  and  of  those 
resigning  a  large  proportion  had  taken  up  arms  against 
the  Government. 

Simultaneously,  and  in  connection  with  all  this,  the 
purpose  to  sever  the  Federal  Union  was  openly 
avowed.  In  accordance  with  this  purpose,  an  ordi- 
nance had  been  adopted  in  each  of  these  States,  declar- 
ing the  States  respectively  to  be  separated  from  the 
National  Union.     A  formula  for  instituting  a  combined 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  135 

Government  of  these  States  had  been  promulgated; 
and  this  illegal  organization,  in  the  character  of  Con- 
federate "States,"  was  already  invoking  recognition, 
aid,  and  intervention  from  foreign  powers. 

Finding  this  condition  of  things,  and  believing  it  to 
be  an  imperative  duty  upon  the  incoming  Executive  to 
prevent,  if  possible,  the  consummation  of  such  attempt 
to  destroy  the  Federal  Union,  a  choice  of  means  to  that 
end  became  indispensable.  This  choice  was  made  and 
was  declared  in  the  Inaugural  Address. 

The  policy  chosen  looked  to  the  exhaustion  of  all 
peaceful  measures  before  a  resort  to  any  stronger 
ones.  It  sought  only  to  hold  the  public  places  and 
property  not  already  wrested  from  the  Government, 
and  to  collect  the  revenue,  relying  for  the  rest  on 
time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box.  It  promised  a 
continuance  of  the  mails,  at  Government  expense,  to 
the  very  people  who  were  resisting  the  Government ; 
and  it  gave  repeated  pledges  against  any  disturbance 
to  any  of  the  people,  or  any  of  their  rights.  Of  all 
that  which  a  President  might  constitutionally  and 
justifiably  do  in  such  a  case,  everything  was  forborne 
without  which  it  was  believed  possible  to  keep  the 
Government  on  foot. 

On  the  5th  of  March  (the  present  incumbent's  first 
full  day  in  office),  a  letter  from  Major  Anderson,  com- 
manding at  Fort  Sumter,  written  on  the  28th  of 
February  and  received  at  the  War  Department  on  the 
4th  of  March,  was  by  that  Department  placed  in  his 


136  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

hands.  This  letter  expressed  the  professional  opinion 
of  the  writer  that  reinforcements  could  not  be  thrown 
into  that  fort  within  the  time  for  its  relief  rendered 
necessary  by  the  limited  supply  of  provisions,  and  with 
a  view  of  holding  possession  of  the  same,  with  a  force 
of  less  that  twenty  thousand  good  and  well-disciplined 
men.  This  opinion  was  concurred  in  by  all  the  officers 
of  his  command,  and  their  memoranda  on  the  subject 
were  made  inclosures  of  Major  Anderson's  letter. 
The  whole  was  immediately  laid  before  Lieutenant- 
General  Scott,  who  at  once  concurred  with  Major 
Anderson  in  his  opinion.  On  reflection,  however,  he 
took  full  time,  consulting  with  other  officers,  both  of  the 
Army  and  Navy,  and  at  the  end  of  four  days  came 
reluctantly  but  decidedly  to  the  same  conclusion  as 
before.  He  also  stated  at  the  same  time  that  no  such 
sufficient  force  was  then  at  the  control  of  the  Govern- 
ment, or  could  be  raised  and  brought  to  the  ground 
within  the  time  when  the  provisions  in  the  fort  would 
be  exhausted. 

In  a  purely  military  point  of  view,  this  reduced  the 
duty  of  the  Administration  in  the  case  to  the  mere 
matter  of  getting  the  garrison  safely  out  of  the  fort. 

It  was  believed,  however,  that  to  so  abandon  that 
position,  under  the  circumstances,  would  be  utterly 
ruinous ;  that  the  necessity  under  which  it  was  to  be 
done  would  not  be  fully  understood ;  that  by  many  it 
would  be  construed  as  a  part  of  a  voluntary  policy; 
that  at  home  it  would  discourage  the  friends  of  the 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  137 

Union,  embolden  its  adversaries,  and  go  far  to  insure 
to  the  latter  a  recognition  abroad;  that,  in  fact,  it 
would  be  our  national  destruction  consummated.  This 
could  not  be  allowed.  Starvation  was  not  yet  upon 
the  garrison,  and  ere  it  would  be  reached  Fort  Pickens 
might  be  reinforced.  This  last  would  be  a  clear  indi- 
cation of  policy,  and  would  better  enable  the  country 
to  accept  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter  as  a  military 
necessity.  An  order  was  at  once  directed  to  be  sent 
for  the  landing  of  the  troops  from  the  steamship 
Brooklyn  into  Fort  Pickens.  This  order  could  not  go 
by  land,  but  must  take  the  longer  and  slower  route  by 
sea.  The  first  return  news  from  the  order  was 
received  just  one  week  before  the  fall  of  Sumter. 
The  news  itself  was  that  the  officer  commanding  the 
Sabine,  to  which  vessel  the  troops  had  been  trans- 
ferred from  the  Brooklyn,  acting  upon  some  quasi 
armistice  of  the  late  Administration  (and  of  the  exist- 
ence of  which  the  present  Administration,  up  to  the 
time  the  order  was  dispatched,  had  only  too  vague 
and  uncertain  rumors  to  fix  attention),  had  refused  to 
land  the  troops.  To  now  reinforce  Fort  Pickens 
before  a  crisis  would  be  reached  at  Fort  Sumter  was 
impossible — rendered  so  by  the  near  exhaustion  of 
provisions  in  the  latter  named  fort.  In  precaution 
against  such  a  conjuncture,  the  Government  had,  a  few 
days  before,  commenced  preparing  an  expedition,  as 
well  adapted  as  might  be  to  relieve  Fort  Sumter, 
which  expedition  was  intended  to  be  ultimately  used, 


138  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

or  not,  according  to  circumstances.  The  strongest 
anticipated  case  for  using  it  was  now  presented,  and 
it  was  resolved  to  send  it  forward,  as  had  been 
intended  in  this  contingency.  It  was  also  resolved  to 
notify  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  that  he  might 
expect  an  attempt  would  be  made  to  provision  the 
fort;  and  that,  if  the  attempt  should  not  be  resisted, 
there  would  be  no  attempt  to  throw  in  men,  arms,  or 
ammunition,  without  further  notice,  or  in  case  of  an 
attack  upon  the  fort.  This  notice  was  accordingly 
given;  whereupon  the  fort  was  attacked  and  bom- 
barded to  its  fall,  without  even  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
the  provisioning  expedition. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  the  assault  upon  and  reduction 
of  Fort  Sumter  was  in  no  sense  a  matter  of  self- 
defense  on  the  part  of  the  assailants.  They  well 
knew  that  the  garrison  in  the  fort  could  by  no  possi- 
bility commit  aggression  upon  them.  They  knew — 
they  were  expressly  notified — that  the  giving  of  bread 
to  the  few  brave  and  hungry  men  of  the  garrison  was  all 
which  would  on  that  occasion  be  attempted,  unless 
themselves,  by  resisting  so  much,  should  provoke 
more.  They  knew  that  this  Government  desired  to 
keep  the  garrison  in  the  fort,  not  to  assail  them,  but 
merely  to  maintain  visible  possession,  and  thus  to 
preserve  the  Union  from  actual  and  immediate  disso- 
lution— trusting,  as  hereinbefore  stated,  to  time,  dis- 
cussion, and  the  ballot-box  for  final  adjustment;  and 
they  assailed  and  reduced*-the  fort  for   precisely  the 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  139 

reverse  object — to  drive  out  the  visible  authority  of 
the  Federal  Union,  and  thus  force  it  to  immediate 
dissolution. 

That  this  was  their  object  the  Executive  well  under- 
stood ;  and  having  said  to  them  in  the  Inaugural  Ad- 
dress, "You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  your- 
selves the  aggressors, ' '  he  took  pains  not  only  to  keep 
this  declaration  good,  but  also  to  keep  the  case  so  far 
from  ingenious  sophistry  that  the  world  should  not  mis- 
understand it.  By  the  affair  at  Fort  Sumter,  with  its  sur- 
rounding circumstances,  that  point  was  reached.  Then 
and  thereby  the  assailants  of  the  Government  began  the 
conflict  of  arms,  without  a  gun  in  sight  or  in  expect- 
ancy to  return  their  fire,  save  only  the  few  in  the  fort 
sent  to  that  harbor  years  before  for  their  own  protec- 
tion, and  still  ready  to  give  that  protection  in  what- 
ever was  lawful.  In  this  act,  discarding  all  else,  they 
have  forced  upon  the  country  the  distinct  issue, 
"immediate  dissolution  or  blood." 

And  this  issue  embraces  more  than  the  fate  of 
these  United  States.  It  presents  to  the  whole  family 
of  man  the  question  whether  a  Constitutional 
Republic  or  Democracy  —  a  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  same  people, — can  or  cannot  maintain  its 
territorial  integrity  against  its  own  domestic  foes.  It 
presents  the  question  whether  discontented  individ- 
uals, too  few  in  numbers  to  control  administration 
according  to  the  organic  law  in  any  case,  can  always, 
upon  the  pretenses  made  in  this  case,  or  any  other 


140  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

pretenses,  or  arbitrarily  without  any  pretense,  break 
up  their  Government,  and  thus  practically  put  an  end 
to  free  government  upon  the  earth.  It  forces  us  to 
ask:  "Is  there,  in  all  republics,  this  inherent  and 
fatal  weakness?"  "Must  a  Government,  of  necessity, 
be  too  strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  own  people,  or 
too  weak  to  maintain  its  own  existence?"  So  viewing 
the  issue,  no  choice  was  left  but  to  call  out  the  war 
power  of  the  Government ;  and  so  to  resist  the  force 
employed  for  its  destruction,  by  force  for  its  preserva- 
tion. 

The  call  was  made,  and  the  response  of  the  country 
was  most  gratifying,  surpassing  in  unanimity  and 
spirit  the  most  sanguine  expectation.  Yet  none  of  the 
States  commonly  called  Slave  States,  except  Delaware, 
gave  a  regiment  through  regular  State  organization. 
A  few  regiments  have  been  organized  within  some 
others  of  those  States  by  individual  enterprise,  and 
received  into  the  Government  service.  Of  course  the 
seceded  States,  so  called  (and  to  which  Texas  had 
been  joined  about  the  time  of  the  inauguration),  gave 
no  troops  to  the  cause  of  the  Union.  The  Border 
States,  so  called,  were  not  uniform  in  their  action, 
some  of  them  being  almost  for  the  Union,  while  in 
others — as  in  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
and  Arkansas — the  Union  sentiment  was  nearly 
repressed  and  silenced. 

The    course   taken    in   Virginia   was   the    most    re- 
markable— perhaps    the    most     important.      A    Con- 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  141 

vention  elected  by  the  people  of  that  State  to 
consider  this  very  question  of  disrupting  the  Federal 
Union  was  in  session  at  the  capital  of  Virginia 
when  Fort  Sumter  fell.  To  this  body  the  people 
had  chosen  a  large  majority  of  professed  Union  men. 
Almost  immediately  after  the  fall  of  Sumter,  many 
members  of  that  majority  went  over  to  the  original 
disunion  minority,  and  with  them  adopted  an  ordi- 
nance for  withdrawing  the  State  from  the  Union. 
Whether  this  change  was  wrought  by  their  great 
approval  of  the  assault  upon  Sumter,  or  their  great 
resentment  at  the  Government's  resistance  to  that 
assault,  is  not  definitely  known.  Although  they  sub- 
mitted the  ordinance  for  ratification  to  a  vote  of  the 
people,  to  be  taken  on  a  day  then  somewhat  more 
than  a  month  distant,  the  Convention  and  the  Legis- 
lature, which  was  also  in  session  at  the  same  time  and 
place,  with  leading  men  of  the  State  not  members  of 
either,  immediately  commenced  acting  as  if  the  State 
were  already  out  of  the  Union.  They  pushed  military 
preparations  vigorously  forward  all  over  the  State. 
They  seized  the  United  States  Armory  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  and  the  Navy  Yard  at  Gosport,  near  Norfolk. 
They  received — perhaps  invited — into  their  State  large 
bodies  of  troops,  with  their  warlike  appointments, 
from  the  so-called  seceded  States.  They  formally 
entered  into  a  treaty  of  temporary  alliance  with 
the  so-called  "Confederate  States, "  and  sent  members 
to  their  Congress  at  Montgomery.     And,  finally,   they 


I42  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

permitted  the  insurrectionary  Government  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  their  capitol  at  Richmond. 

The  people  of  Virginia  have  thus  allowed  this  giant 
insurrection  to  make  its  nest  within  her  borders;  and 
this  Government  has  no  choice  left  but  to  deal  with  it 
where  it  finds  it,  and  it  has  the  less  to  regret  as  the 
loyal  citizens  have,  in  due  form,  claimed  its  protection. 
Those  loyal  citizens  this  Government  is  bound  to 
recognize  and  protect,  as  being  in  Virginia.  In  the 
Border  States,  so  called, — in  fact  the  Middle  States, — 
there  are  those  who  favor  a  policy  which  they  call 
"armed  neutrality"  ;  that  is,  an  arming  of  those  States 
to  prevent  the  Union  forces  passing  one  way,  or  the 
disunion  forces  the  other,  over  their  soil.  This  would 
be  disunion  completed.  Figuratively  speaking,  it  would 
be  the  building  of  an  impassable  wall  along  the  line  of 
separation, — and  yet  not  quite  an  impassable  one,  for 
under  the  guise  of  neutrality  it  would  tie  the  hands  of 
the  Union  men,  and  freely  pass  supplies  from  among 
them  to  the  insurrectionists,  which  it  could  not  do  as  an 
open  enemy.  At  a  stroke  it  would  take  all  the  trouble 
off  the  hands  of  secession,  except  only  what  proceeds 
from  the  external  blockade.  It  would  do  for  the  dis- 
unionists  that  which,  of  all  things,  they  most  desire — 
feed  them  well,  and  give  them  disunion  without  a 
struggle  of  their  own.  It  recognizes  no  fidelity  to  the 
Constitution,  no  obligation  to  maintain  the  Union; 
and  while  very  many  who  have  favored  it  are  doubtless 
loyal  citizens,  it  is,  nevertheless,  very  injurious  in  effect. 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  143 

Recurring  to  the  action  of  the  -Government,  it  may- 
be stated  that  at  first  a  call  was  made  for  seventy-five 
thousand  militia ;  and,  rapidly  following  this,  a  procla- 
mation was  issued  for  closing  the  ports  of  the  insurrec- 
tionary districts  by  proceedings  in  the  nature  of 
a  blockade.  So  far  all  was  believed  to  be  strictly 
legal. 

At  this  point  the  insurrectionists  announced  their 
purpose  to  enter  upon  the  practice  of  privateering. 

Other  calls  were  made  for  volunteers  to  serve  three 
years,  unless  sooner  discharged,  and  also  for  large 
additions  to  the  regular  army  and  navy.  These 
measures,  whether  strictly  legal  or  not,  were  ventured 
upon,  under  what  appeared  to  be  a  popular  demand 
and  a  public  necessity;  trusting  then,  as  now,  that 
Congress  would  ratify  them.  It  is  believed  that 
nothing  has  been  done  beyond  the  constitutional  com- 
petency of  Congress. 

Soon  after  the  first  call  for  militia,  it  was  considered 
a  duty  to  authorize  the  commanding  general  in  proper 
cases,  according  to  his  discretion,  to  suspend  the 
privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  arrest  and  detain,  without  resort  to  the  ordi- 
nary processes  and  forms  of  law,  such  individuals  as 
he  might  deem  dangerous  to  the  public  safety.  This 
authority  has  purposely  been  exercised  but  very 
sparingly.  Nevertheless,  the  legality  and  propriety 
of  what  has  been  done  under  it  are  questioned,  and  the 
attention  of  the  country  has  been  called  to  the  proposi- 


144  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

tion  that  one  who  has  sworn  to  "take  care  that  the 
laws  be  faithfully  executed"  should  not  himself  violate 
them.  Of  course  some  consideration  was  given  to  the 
questions  of  power  and  propriety  before  this  matter 
was  acted  upon.  The  whole  of  the  laws  which  were 
required  to  be  faithfully  executed  were  being  resisted 
and  failing  of  execution  in  nearly  one-third  of  the 
States.  Must  they  be  allowed  to  finally  fail  of  execu- 
tion, even  had  it  been  perfectly  clear  that  by  use  of 
the  means  necessary  to  their  execution  some  single 
law,  made  in  such  extreme  tenderness  of  the  citizen's 
liberty  that,  practically,  it  relieves  more  of  the  guilty 
than  the  innocent,  should  to  a  very  great  extent  be 
violated?  To  state  the  question  more  directly,  are  all 
the  laws  but  one  to  go  unexecuted,  and  the  Govern- 
ment itself  to  go  to  pieces,  lest  that  one  be  violated? 
Even  in  such  a  case,  would  not  the  official  oath  be 
broken  if  the  Government  should  be  overthrown, 
when  it  was  believed  that  disregarding  the  single  law 
would  tend  to  preserve  it?  But  it  was  not  believed 
that  this  question  was  presented.  It  was  not  believed 
that  any  law  was  violated. 

The  provision  of  the  Constitution  that  "the  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus*  shall  not  be  suspended, 
unless  when,   in  cases   of   rebellion  or   invasion,   the 


*The  writ  commanding  a  person  having  another  in  custody  to 
produce  the  body  of  the  person  detained,  with  the  day  and  cause 
of  his  capture  and  detention,  and  to  do,  submit  to,  and  receive 
whatever  the  judge  or  court  shall  consider  in  that  behalf. — Stand- 
ard Dictionary. 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  145 

public  safety  may  require  it, ' '  is  equivalent  to  a  pro- 
vision that  such  privilege  may  be  suspended  when, 
in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety 
does  require  it.  It  was  decided  that  we  have  a  case 
of  rebellion,  and  that  the  public  safety  does  re- 
quire the  qualified  suspension  of  the  privilege  of 
the  writ  which  was  authorized  to  be  made.  Now  it 
is  insisted  that  Congress,  and  not  the  Executive,  is 
vested  with  this  power.  But  the  Constitution  itself  is 
silent  as  to  which  or  who  is  to  exercise  the  power; 
and  as  the  provision  was  plainly  made  for  a  dangerous 
emergency,  it  cannot  be  believed  that  the  framers  of 
the  instrument  intended  that  in  every  case  the 
danger  should  run  its  course  until  Congress  could  be 
called  together,  the  very  assembling  of  which  might 
be  prevented,  as  was  intended  in  this  case,  by  the 
rebellion. 

No  more  extended  argument  is  now  offered,  as  an 
opinion  at  some  length  will  probably  be  presented  by 
the  Attorney-General.  Whether  there  shall  be  any 
legislation  upon  the  subject,  and  if  any,  what,  is  sub- 
mitted entirely  to  the  better  judgment  of  Congress. 

The  forbearance  of  this  Government  had  been  so 
extraordinary  and  so  long  continued  as  to  lead  some 
foreign  nations  to  shape  their  action  as  if  they  sup- 
posed the  early  destruction  of  our  National  Union  was 
probable.  While  this,  on  discovery,  gave  the  Execu- 
tive some  concern,  he  is  now  happy  to  say  that  the 
sovereignty  and  rights  of  the  United  States  are  now 


I46  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

everywhere  practically  respected  by  foreign  powers; 
and  a  general  sympathy  with  the  country  is  mani- 
fested throughout  the  world. 

The  reports  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  War, 
and  the  Navy  will  give  the  information  in  detail 
deemed  necessary  and  convenient  for  your  delibera- 
tion and  action;  while  the  Executive  and  all  the 
Departments  will  stand  ready  to  supply  omissions  or 
to  communicate  new  facts  considered  important  for 
you  to  know.  It  is  now  recommended  that  you  give 
the  legal  means  for  making  this  contest  a  short  and 
decisive  one:  that  you  place  at  the  control  of  the 
Government  for  the  work  at  least  400,000  men  and 
$400,000,000.  That  number  of  men  is  about  one- 
tenth  of  those  of  proper  ages  within  the  regions 
where,  apparently,  all  are  willing  to  engage ;  and  the 
sum  is  less  than  a  twenty-third  part  of  the  money 
value  owned  by  the  men  who  seem  ready  to  devote 
the  whole.  A  debt  of  $600,000,000  now  is  a  less  strap- 
per head  than  was  the  debt  of  our  Revolution  when 
we  came  out  of  that  struggle ;  and  the  money  value  in 
the  country  bears  even  a  greater  proportion  to  what  it 
was  then  than  does  the  population.  Surely  each  man 
has  as  strong  a  motive  now  to  preserve  our  liberties  as 
each  had  then  to  establish  them. 

A  right  result  at  this  time  will  be  worth  more  to  the 
world  than  ten  times  the  men  and  ten  times  the 
money.  The  evidence  reachiug  us  from  the  country 
leaves   no   doubt   that   the   material   for  the  work   is 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  147 

abundant,  and  that  it  needs  only  the  hand  of  legisla- 
tion to  give  it  legal  sanction,  and  the  hand  of  the 
Executive  to  give  it  practical  shape  and  efficiency. 
One  of  the  greatest  perplexities  of  the  Government  is 
to  avoid  receiving  troops  faster  than  it  can  provide  for 
them.  In  a  word,  the  people  will  save  their  Govern- 
ment if  the  Government  will  do  its  part  only  indiffer- 
ently well. 

It  might  seem,  at  first  thought,  to  be  of  little  differ- 
ence whether  the  present  movement  at  the  South  be 
called  "secession"  or  "rebellion."  The  movers, 
however,  well  understand  the  difference.  At  the 
beginning  they  knew  that  they  could  never  raise  their 
treason  to  any  respectable  magnitude  by  any  name 
which  implies  violation  of  law.  They  knew  their 
people  possessed  as  much  of  moral  sense,  as  much  of 
devotion  to  law  and  order,  and  as  much  pride  in  and 
reverence  for  the  history  and  government  of  their 
common  country  as  any  other  civilized  and  patriotic 
people.  They  knew  they  could  make  no  advancement 
directly  in  the  teeth  of  these  strong  and  noble  senti- 
ments. Accordingly,  they  commenced  by  an  insidious 
debauching  of  the  public  mind.  They  invented  an 
ingenious  sophism  which,  if  conceded,  was  followed  by 
perfectly  logical  steps,  through  all  the  incidents,  of 
the  complete  destruction  of  the  Union.  The  sophism 
itself  is  that  any  State  of  the  Union  may  consistently 
with  the  nation's  Constitution,  and  therefore  lawfully 
and  peacefully,  withdraw  from  the  Union  without  the 


148  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

consent  of  the  Union  or  of  any  other  State.  The 
little  disguise  that  the  supposed  right  is  to  be  exer- 
cised only  for  just  cause,  themselves  to  be  the  sole 
judges  of  its  justice,  is  too  thin  to  merit  any  notice. 

With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated  they  have  been 
drugging  the  public  mind  of  their  section  for  more 
than  thirty  years,  and  until  at  length  they  have 
brought  many  good  men  to  a  willingness  to  take  up 
arms  against  the  Government  the  day  after  some 
assemblage  of  men  have  enacted  the  farcical  pretense 
of  taking  their  State  out  of  the  Union,  who  could  have 
been  brought  to  no  such  thing  the  day  before. 

This  sophism  derives  much,  perhaps  the  whole,  of 
its  currency  from  the  assumption  that  there  is  some 
omnipotent  and  sacred  supremacy  pertaining  to  a 
State — to  each  State  of  our  Federal  Union.  Our 
States  have  neither  more  nor  less  power  than  that 
reserved  to  them  in  the  Union  by  the  Constitution — 
no  one  of  them  ever  having  been  a  State  out  of  the 
Union.  The  original  ones  passed  into  the  Union 
before  they  cast  off  their  British  Colonial  depend- 
ence; and  the  new  ones  came  into  the  Union 
directly  from  a  condition  of  dependence,  excepting 
Texas.  And  even  Texas,  in  its  temporary  independ- 
ence, was  never  designated  a  State.  The  new  ones 
only  took  the  designation  of  States  on  coming  into 
the  Union,  while  that  name  was  first  adopted  for  the 
old  ones  in  and  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Therein  the  ''United  Colonies"  were  declared  to  be 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  149 

"free  and  independent  States";  but  even  then  the 
object  plainly  was  not  to  declare  their  independence 
of  one  another  or  of  the  Union,  but  directly  the  con- 
trary, as  their  mutual  pledge  and  their  mutual  action 
before,  at  the  time,  and  afterward,  abundantly  show. 
The  express  plighting  of  faith  by  each  and  all  of  the 
original  thirteen  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  two 
years  later,  that  the  Union  shall  be  perpetual,  is  most 
conclusive.  Having  never  been  States  either  in 
substance  or  in  name  outside  of  the  Union,  whence 
this  magical  omnipotence  of  "State  rights,"  asserting 
a  claim  of  power  to  lawfully  destroy  the  Union  itself? 
Much  is  said  about  the  "sovereignty"  of  the  States; 
but  the  word  even  is  not  in  the  National  Constitution, 
nor,  as  is  believed,  in  any  of  the  State  constitutions. 
What  is  lt sovereignty"  in  the  political  sense  of  the 
word?  Would  it  be  far  wrong  to  define  it  "a  political 
community  without  a  political  superior"?  Tested  by 
this,  no  one  of  our  States,  except  Texas,  was  a  sover- 
eignty, and  even  Texas  gave  up  the  character  on 
coming  into  the  Union;  by  which  act  she  acknowl- 
edged the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  laws  and  treaties  of  the  United  States  made  in 
pursuance  of  the  Constitution,  to  be  for  her  the 
supreme  law.  The  States  have  their  status  in  the 
Union,  and  they  have  no  other  legal  status.  If  they 
break  from  this,  they  can  only  do  so  against  law  and 
by  revolution.  The  Union,  and  not  themselves 
separately,    procured    their    independence    and    their 


150  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

liberty,  by  conquest  or  purchase.  The  Union  gave 
each  of  them  whatever  of  independence  and  liberty  it 
has.  The  Union  is  older  than  any  of  the  States,  and, 
in  fact,  it  created  them  as  States.  Originally,  some 
dependent  Colonies  made  the  Union,  and  in  turn  the 
Union  threw  off  their  old  dependence  for  them,  and 
made  them  States,  such  as  they  are.  Not  one  of 
them  ever  had  a  State  constitution  independent  of 
the  Union.  Of  course,  it  is  not  forgotten  that  all  the 
new  States  framed  their  constitutions  before  they 
entered  the  Union — nevertheless,  dependent  upon  and 
preparatory  to  coming  into  the  Union. 

Unquestionably  the  States  have  the  powers  and 
rights  reserved  to  them  in  and  by  the  National  Con- 
stitution ;  but  among  these  surely  are  not  included  all 
conceivable  powers,  however  mischievous  or  destruc- 
tive, but,  at  most,  such  only  as  were  known  in  the 
world  at  the  time  as  governmental  powers;  and  cer- 
tainly a  power  to  destroy  the  Government  itself  had 
never  been  known  as  a  governmental,  as  a  merely 
administrative  power.  This  relative  matter  of 
National  power  and  State  rights,  as  a  principle,  is  no 
other  than  the  principle  of  generality  and  locality. 
Whatever  concerns  the  whole  should  be  confided  to 
the  whole — to  the  General  Government;  while  what- 
ever concerns  only  the  State  should  be  left  exclusively 
to  the  State.  This  is  all  there  is  of  original  principle 
about  it.  Whether  the  National  Constitution  in  defin- 
ing boundaries  between  the  two  has  applied  the  prin- 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  151 

ciple  with  exact  accuracy  is  not  to  be  questioned.     We 
are  all  bound  by  that  denning,  without  question. 

What  is  now  combatted  is  the  position  that  secession 
is  consistent  with  the  Constitution — is  lawful  and 
peaceful.  It  is  not  contended  that  there  is  any 
express  law  for  it ;  and  nothing  should  ever  be  implied 
as  law  which  leads  to  unjust  or  absurd  consequences. 
The  nation  purchased  with  money  the  countries  out  of 
which  several  of  these  States  were  formed.  Is  it  just 
that  they  shall  go  off  without  leave  and  without 
refunding?  The  nation  paid  very  large  sums  (in  the 
aggregate,  I  believe,  nearly  a  hundred  millions)  to  re- 
lieve Florida  of  the  aboriginal  tribes.  Is  it  just  that  she 
shall  now  be  off  without  consent  or  without  any  return? 
The  nation  is  now  in  debt  for  money  applied  to  the 
benefit  of  these  so-called  seceding  States  in  common 
with  the  rest.  Is  it  just  either  that  creditors  shall  go 
unpaid  or  the  remaining  States  pay  the  whole?  A 
part  of  the  present  National  debt  was  contracted  to 
pay  the  old  debts  of  Texas.  Is  it  just  that  she  shall 
leave  and  pay  no  part  of  this  herself?  Again,  if 
one  State  may  secede,  so  may  another;  and  when 
all  shall  have  seceded,  none  is  left  to  pay  the  debts. 
Is  this  quite  just  to  creditors?  Did  we  notify  them 
of  this  sage  view  of  ours  when  we  borrowed  their 
money?  If  we  now  recognize  this  doctrine  by  allow- 
ing the  seceders  to  go  in  peace,  it  is  difficult  to  see 
what  we  can  do  if  others  choose  to  go  or  to  extort 
terms  upon  which  they  will  promise  to  remain. 


152  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

The  seceders  insist  that  our  Constitution  admits  of 
secession.  They  have  assumed  to  make  a  National 
Constitution  of  their  own,  in  which  of  necessity  they 
have  either  discarded  or  retained  the  right  of  seces- 
sion, as  they  insist  exists  in  ours.  If  they  have  dis- 
carded it,  they  thereby  admit  that  on  principle  it 
ought  not  to  exist  in  ours.  If  they  have  retained  it,  by 
their  own  construction  of  ours  they  show  that  to  be 
consistent  they  must  secede  from  one  another  when- 
ever they  shall  find  it  the  easiest  way  of  settling  their 
debts,  or  effecting  any  other  selfish  or  unjust  object. 
The  principle  itself  is  one  of  disintegration,  and  upon 
which  no  Government  can  possibly  endure. 

If  all  the  States  save  one  should  assert  the  power  to 
drive  that  one  out  of  the  Union,  it  is  presumed  the 
whole  class  of  seceder  politicians  would  at  once  deny 
the  power  and  denounce  the  act  as  the  greatest  out- 
rage upon  State  rights.  But  suppose  that  precisely 
the  same  act,  instead  of  being  called  "driving  the  one 
out,"  should  be  called  "the  seceding  of  the  others 
j from  that  one,"  it  would  be  exactly  what  the  seceders 
claim  to  do,  unless,  indeed,  they  make  the  point  that 
the  one,  because  it  is  a  minority,  may  rightfully  do 
what  the  others,  because  they  are  a  majority,  may  not 
rightfully  do.  These  politicians  are  subtle  and  pro- 
found in  the  rights  of  minorities.  The}7  are  not 
partial  to  that  power  which  made  the  Constitution  and 
speaks  from  the  preamble  calling  itself  "We,  the 
people." 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  153 

It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  there  is  to-day  a 
majority  of  the  legally  qualified  voters  of  any  State, 
except  perhaps  South  Carolina,  in  favor  of  disunion. 
There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  Union  men 
are  the  majority  in  many,  if  not  in  every  other  one,  of 
the  so-called  seceded   States.     The  contrary  has  not 
been  demonstrated  in  any  one  of  them.      It  is  ven- 
tured to  affirm  this  even  of  Virginia  and  Tennessee ; 
for  the  result  of  an  election  held  in  military  camps, 
where  the  bayonets  are  all  on  one  side  of  the  question 
voted  upon,  can  scarcely  be  considered  as  demonstrat- 
ing popular  sentiment.     At  such  an  election,  all  that 
large  class  who  are  at  once  for  the  Union  and  against 
coercion  would  be  coerced  to  vote  against  the  Union. 

It  may  be  affirmed  without  extravagance  that  the 
free  institutions  we  enjoy  have  developed  the  powers 
and  improved  the  condition  of  our  whole  people 
beyond  any  example  in  the  world.  Of  this  we  now 
have  a  striking  and  impressive  illustration.  So  large 
an  army  as  the  Government  has  now  on  foot  was 
never  before  known,  without  a  soldier  in  it  but  who 
has  taken  his  place  there  of  his  own  free  choice.  But 
more  than  this,  there  are  man)r  single  regiments  whose 
members,  one  and  another,  possess  full  practical 
knowledge  of  all  the  arts,  sciences,  professions,  and 
whatever  else,  whether  useful  or  elegant,  is  known 
in  the  world;  and  there  is  scarcely  one  from  which 
there  could  not  be  selected  a  President,  a  Cabinet, 
a  Congress,   and    perhaps  a  Court,   abundantly  com- 


154  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

petent  to  administer  the  Government  itself.  Nor 
do  I  say  this  is  not  true  also  in  the  army  of  our  late 
friends,  now  adversaries  in  this  contest;  but  if  it 
is,  so  much  better  the  reason  why  the  Government 
which  has  conferred  such  benefits  on  both  them  and  us 
should  not  be  broken  up.  Whoever  in  any  section 
proposes  to  abandon  such  a  Government  would  do  well 
to  consider  in  deference  to  what  principle  it  is  that  he 
does  it — what  better  he  is  likely  to  get  in  its  stead — 
whether  the  substitute  will  give,  or  be  intended  to 
give,  so  much  of  good  to  the  people.  There  are  some 
foreshadowings  on  this  subject.  Our  adversaries  have 
adopted  some  declarations  of  independence  in  which 
unlike  our  good  old  one,  penned  by  Jefferson,  they 
omit  the  words  "all  men  are  created  equal."  Why? 
They  have  adopted  a  temporary  National  Constitution, 
in  the  preamble  of  which,  unlike  our  good  old  one, 
signed  by  Washington,  they  omit  "We,  the  people," 
and  substitute  "We,  the  deputies  of  the  sovereign  and 
independent  States."  Why?  Why  this  deliberate 
pressing  out  of  view  the  rights  of  men  and  the 
authority  of  the  people?  . 

This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  On  the  side 
of  the  Union  it  is  a  struggle  for  maintaining  in  the 
world  that  form  and  substance  of  Government  whose 
leading  object  is  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men — to  lift 
artificial  weights  from  all  shoulders ;  to  clear  the  paths 
of  laudable  pursuit  for  all ;  to  afford  all  an  unfettered 
start,  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life.     Yielding 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  155 

to  partial  and  temporary  departures,  from  necessity, 
this  is  the  leading  object  of  the  Government  for  whose 
existence  we  contend. 

I  am  most  happy  to  believe  that  the  plain  people 
understand  and  appreciate  this.  It  is  worthy  of  note 
that  while  in  this,  the  Government's  hour  of  trial,  large 
numbers  of  those  in  the  army  and  navy  who  have  been 
favored  with  the  offices  have  resigned  and  proved  false 
to  the  hand  which  had  pampered  them,  not  one  com- 
mon soldier  or  common  sailor  is  known  to  have 
deserted  his  flag.  Great  honor  is  due  to  those 
officers  who  remained  true,  despite  the  example  of 
their  treacherous  associates;  but  the  greatest  honor, 
and  the  most  important  fact  of  all,  is  the  unanimous 
firmness  of  the  common  soldiers  and  common  sailors. 
To  the  last  man,  so  far  as  known,  they  have  success- 
fully resisted  the  traitorous  efforts  of  those  whose 
commands,  but  an  hour  before,  they  obeyed  as 
absolute  law.  This  is  the  patriotic  instinct  of  the 
plain  people.  They  understand,  without  an  argument, 
that  the  destroying  of  the  Government  which  was 
made  by  Washington  means  no  good  to  them. 

Our  popular  Government  has  often  been  called  an 
experiment.  Two  points  in  it  our  people  have  set- 
tled— the  successful  establishing  and  the  successful 
administering  of  it.  One  still  remains — its  successful 
maintenance  against  a  formidable  internal  attempt  to 
overthrow  it.  It  is  now  for  them  to  demonstrate  to 
the  world  that    those    who  can    fairly  carry  an  elec- 


156  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION. 

tion  can  also  suppress  a  rebellion ;  that  ballots  are  the 
rightful  and  peaceful  successors  of  bullets;  and  that 
when  ballots  have  fairly  and  constitutionally  decided, 
there  can  be  no  successful  appeal  back  to  bullets;  that 
there  can  be  no  successful  appeal,  except  to  ballots 
themselves,  at  succeeding  elections.  Such  will  be  a 
great  lesson  of  peace:  teaching  men  that  what  they 
cannot  take  by  an  election,  neither  can  they  take  it  by 
a  war ;  teaching  all  the  folly  of  being  the  beginners  of 
a  war. 

Lest  there  should  be  some  uneasiness  in  the  minds 
of  candid  men  as  to  what  is  to  be  the  course  of  the 
Government  toward  the  Southern  States  after  the 
rebellion  shall  have  been  suppressed,  the  Executive 
deems  it  proper  to  say  it  will  be  his  purpose  then,  as 
ever,  to  be  guided  by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws ; 
and  that  he  probably  will  have  no  different  under- 
standing of  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  Federal 
Government  relatively  to  the  rights  of  the  States  and 
the  people,  under  the  Constitution,  than  that  expressed 
in  the  Inaugural  Address.  He  desires  to  preserve  the 
Government,  that  it  may  be  administered  for  all  as  it 
was  administered  by  the  men  who  made  it.  Loyal 
citizens  everywhere  have  a  right  to  claim  this  of 
their  Government,  and  the  Government  has  no  right 
to  withhold  or  neglect  it.  It  is  not  perceived  that  in 
giving  it  there  is  any  coercion,  conquest  or  subjuga- 
tion in  any  just  sense  of  those  terms. 

The  Constitution  provides,  and  all  the  States  have 


MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS    IN    SPECIAL    SESSION.  157 

accepted  the  provision,  that  "the  United  States  shall 
guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union  a  Republican 
form  of  government."  But  if  a  State  may  lawfully 
go  out  of  the  Union,  having  done  so,  it  may  also  dis- 
card the  Republican  form  of  government;  so  that  to 
prevent  its  going  out  is  an  indispensable  means  to  the 
end  of  maintaining  the  guaranty  mentioned,  and 
when  an  end  is  lawful  and  obligatory,  the  indispen- 
sable means  to  it  are  also  lawful  and  obligatory. 

It  was  with  the  deepest  regret  that  the  Executive 
found  the  duty  of  employing  the  war  power  in  defense 
of  the  Government  forced  upon  him.  He  could  but 
perform  this  duty  or  surrender  the  existence  of  the 
Government.  No  compromise  by  public  servants 
could,  in  this  case,  be  a  cure;  not  that  compromises 
are  not  often  proper,  but  that  no  popular  government 
can  long  survive  a  marked  precedent  that  those  who 
carry  an  election  can  only  save  the  Government  from 
immediate  destruction  by  giving  up  the  main  point 
upon  which  the  people  gave  the  election.  The  people 
themselves,  and  not  their  servants,  can  safely  reverse 
their  own  deliberate  decisions. 

As  a  private  citizen  the  Executive  could  not  have 
consented  that  these  institutions  shall  perish;  much 
less  could  he,  in  betrayal  of  so  vast  and  so  sacred  a 
trust  as  the  free  people  have  confided  to  him.  He  felt 
that  he  had  no  moral  right  to  shrink,  nor  even  to  count 
the  chances  of  his  own  life  in  what  might  follow.  In 
full  view  of  his  great  responsibility  he  has,   so  far, 


158    Lincoln's  mode  of  life  at  the  white  house. 

done  what  he  has  deemed  his  duty.  You  will  now, 
according  to  your  own  judgment,  perform  yours.  He 
sincerely  hopes  that  your  views  and  your  actions  may 
so  accord  with  his  as  to  assure  all  faithful  citizens  who 
have  been  disturbed  in  their  rights  of  a  certain  and 
speedy  restoration  to  them,  under  the  Constitution 
and  laws.  And  having  thus  chosen  our  course  with- 
out guile  and  with  pure  purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust 
in  God,  and  go  forward  without  fear  and  with  manly 

hearts. 

Abraham  Lincoln. 
July  4,  1 86 1. 


LINCOLN'S    MODE   OF  LIFE   AT  THE   WHITE 

HOUSE. 

Lincoln  went  to  bed  ordinarily  from  ten  to  eleven 
o'clock,  unless  he  happened  to  be  kept  up  by  impor- 
tant news,  in  which  case  he  would  frequently  remain  at 
the  War  Department  till  one  or  two.  He  rose 
early.  When  he  lived  in  the  country  at  the  Soldiers' 
Home  he  would  be  up  and  dressed,  eat  his  breakfast 
(which  was  extremely  frugal,  an  egg,  a  piece  of  toast, 
coffee,  etc.),  and  ride  into  Washington,  all  before  eight 
o'clock.  In  the  winter,  at  the  White  House,  he  was 
not  quite  so  early.  He  did  not  sleep  well,  but  spent  a 
good  while  in  bed.  "Tad"  usually  slept  with  him. 
He  would  lie  around  the  office  until  he  fell  asleep,  and 
Lincoln  would  shoulder  him  and  take  him  off  to  bed, 


Lincoln's  mode  of  life  at  the  white  house.  159 

He  pretended  to  begin  business  at  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  but  in  reality  the  ante-rooms  and  halls  were 
full  long  before  that  hour — people  anxious  to  get  the 
first  ax  ground.  He  was  extremely  unmethodical;  it 
was  four  years'  struggle  on  Nicolay's  part  and  mine  to 
get  him  to  adopt  some  systematic  rules.  He  would 
break  through  every  regulation  as  fast  as  it  was  made. 
Anything  that  kept  the  people  themselves  away  from 
him  he  disapproved,  although  they  nearly  annoyed  the 
life  out  of  him  by  unreasonable  complaints  and 
requests.  He  wrote  very  few  letters,  and  did  not 
read  one  in  fifty  that  he  received.  At  first  we  tried  to 
bring  them  to  his  notice,  but  at  last  he  gave  the  whole 
thing  over  to  me,  and  signed,  without  reading  them, 
the  letters  I  wrote  in  his  name.  He  wrote  perhaps 
half-a-dozen  a  week  himself — not  more.  Nicolay 
received  members  of  Congress  and  other  visitors  who 
had  business  with  the  Executive  office,  communicated 
to  the  Senate  and  House  the  messages  of  the  Presi- 
dent, and  exercised  a  general  supervision  over  the 
business.  I  opened  and  read  the  letters,  answered 
them,  looked  over  the  newspapers,  supervised  the 
clerks  who  kept  the  records,  and  in  Nicolay's  absence 
did  his  work  also.  When  the  President  had  any  rather 
delicate  matter  to  manage  at  a  distance  from  Washing- 
ton he  rarely  wrote,  but  sent  Nicolay  or  me.  The 
House  remained  full  of  people  nearly  all  day.  At 
noon  the  President  took  a  little  lunch — a  biscuit,  a 
glass  of  milk  in  winter,  some  fruit  or  grapes  in  sum- 


160    Lincoln's  mode  of  life  at  the  white  house. 

mer.  He  dined  between  five  and  six,  and  we  went 
off  to  our  dinner  also.  Before  dinner  was  over,  mem- 
bers and  Senators  would  come  back  and  take  up  the 
whole  evening.  Sometimes,  though  rarely,  he  shut 
himself  up  and  would  see  no  one.  Sometimes  he 
would  run  away  to  a  lecture,  or  concert,  or  theater,  for 
the  sake  of  a  little  rest.  He  was  very  abstemious — ate 
less  than  any  man  I  know.  He  drank  nothing  but 
water,  not  from  principle  but  because  he  did  not  like 
wine  or  spirits.  Once,  in  rather  dark  days  early  in  the 
war,  a  temperance  committee  came  to  him  and  said 
that  the  reason  we  did  not  win  was  because  our  army 
drank  so  much  whisky  as  to  bring  the  curse  of  the 
Lord  upon  them.  He  said  it  was  rather  unfair  on  the 
part  of  the  aforesaid  curse,  as  the  other  side  drank 
more  and  worse  whisky  than  ours  did.  He  read  very 
little.  He  scarcely  ever  looked  into  a  newspaper 
unless  I  called  his  attention  to  an  article  on  some 
special  subject.  He  frequently  said,  "I  know  more 
about  it  than  any  of  them. "  It  is  absurd  to  call  him  a 
modest  man.  No  great  man  was  ever  modest.  It 
was  his  intellectual  arrogance  and  unconscious 
assumption  of  superiority  that  men  like  Chase  and 
Sumner  never  could  forgive.  I  believe  that  Lincoln 
is  well  understood  by  the  people;  but  there  is  a 
patent-leather,  kid-glove  set  who  know  no  more  of 
him  than  an  owl  does  of  a  comet  blazing  into  his 
blinking  eyes.  Their  estimates  of  him  are  in  many 
cases  disgraceful  exhibitions  of  ignorance  and  preju- 


RECOMMENDING    COMPENSATED    EMANCIPATION.        l6l 

dice.  Their  effeminate  natures  shrink  instinctively 
from  the  contact  of  a  great  reality  like  Lincoln's  char- 
acter.    I  consider  Lincoln's  republicanism  incarnate — 

with  all  its  faults  and  all  its  virtues. 

John  Hay. 
From  "Hemdon's  Life  of  Lincoln" 


The  messages,  letters  and  proclamations,  which  fol- 
low y  relating  to  emancipate,  show  clearly  and  com- 
pletely Mr.  Lincoln 's  position  on  slavery  and  how  he  was 
brought  by  the  progress  of  events  to  see  that  emancipation 
was  the  right  course  for  him. — Ed. 

MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS     RECOMMENDING 
COMPENSATED    EMANCIPATION. 

Fellow-Citizens    of    the    Senate    and    House    of 

Representatives: — I    recommend    the  adoption  of    a 

joint  resolution  by  your  honorable  bodies,  which  shall 

be  substantially  as  follows: 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  cooperate  with  any- 
State  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,  giving  to 
such  State  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by  such  State,  in  its  discre- 
tion, to  compensate  for  the  inconveniences,  public  and  private, 
produced  by  such  change  of  system. 

If  the  proposition  contained  in  the  resolution  does 
not  meet  the  approval  of  Congress  and  the  country, 
there  is  the  end;  but  if  it  does  command  such 
approval,  I  deem  it  of  importance  that  the  States 
and  people  immediately  interested  should  be  at  once 


162       RECOMMENDING    COMPENSATED    EMANCIPATION. 

distinctly  notified  of  the  fact,  so  that  they  may 
begin  to  consider  whether  to  accept  or  reject  it. 
The  Federal  Government  would  find  its  highest 
interest  in  such  a  measure,  as  one  of  the  most  effi- 
cient means  of  self-preservation.  The  leaders  of 
the  existing  insurrection  entertain  the  hope  that  this 
Government  will  ultimately  be  forced  to  acknowledge 
the  independence  of  some  part  of  the  disaffected 
region,  and  that  all  the  slave  States  north  of  such  part 
will  then  say,  "the  Union  for  which  we  have  struggled 
being  already  gone,  we  now  choose  to  go  with  the 
southern  section."  To  deprive  them  of  this  hope 
substantially  ends  the  rebellion ;  and  the  initiation  of 
emancipation  completely  deprives  them  of  it  as  to  all 
the  States  initiating  it.  The  point  is  not  that  all  the 
States  tolerating  slavery  would  very  soon,  if  at  all, 
initiate  emancipation;  but  that  while  the  offer  is 
equally  made  to  all,  the  more  northern  shall,  by  such 
initiation,  make  it  certain  to  the  more  southern  that  in 
no  event  will  the  former  ever  join  the  latter  in  their 
proposed  confederacy.  I  say  "initiation"  because,  in 
my  judgment,  gradual  and  not  sudden  emancipation  is 
better  for  all.  In  the  mere  financial  or  pecuniary 
view,  any  member  of  Congress,  with  the  census  tables 
and  treasury  reports  before  him,  can  readily  see  for 
himself  how  very  soon  the  current  expenditures  of 
this  war  would  purchase,  at  fair  valuation,  all  the 
slaves  in  any  named  State.  Such  a  proposition  on  the 
part  of  the  General  Government  sets  up  no  claim  of  a 


RECOMMENDING    COMPENSATED    EMANCIPATION.       163 

right  by  Federal  authority  to  interfere  with  slavery 
within  State  limits,  referring-,  as  it  does,  the  absolute 
control  of  the  subject  in  each  case  to  the  State  and  its 
people  immediately  interested.  It  is  proposed  as  a 
matter  of  perfectly  free  choice  with  them. 

In  the  annual  message,  last  December,  I  thought  fit 
to  say,  "The  Union  must  be  preserved,  and  hence  all 
indispensable  means  must  be  employed."  I  said  this 
not  hastily,  but  deliberately.  War  has  been  made, 
and  continues  to  be,  an  indispensable  means  to  this 
end.  A  practical  re-acknowledgment  of  the  national 
authority  would  render  the  war  unnecessary,  and  it 
would  at  once  cease.  If,  however,  resistance  con- 
tinues, the  war  must  also  continue;  and  it  is  impos- 
sible to  foresee  all  the  incidents  which  may  attend  and 
all  the  ruin  which  may  follow  it.  Such  as  may  seem 
indispensable,  or  may  obviously  promise  great 
efficiency,  toward  ending  the  struggle,  must  and  will 
come. 

The  proposition  now  made,  though  an  offer  only,  I 
hope  it  may  be  esteemed  no  offense  to  ask  whether 
the  pecuniary  consideration  tendered  would  not  be  of 
more  value  to  the  States  and  private  persons  con- 
cerned than  are  the  institution  and  property  in  it,  in 
the  present  aspect  of  affairs? 

While  it  is  true  that  the  adoption  of  the  proposed 
resolution  would  be  merely  initiatory,  and  not  within 
itself  a  practical  measure,  it  is  recommended  in  the 
hope  that  it  would  soon  lead  to  important  practical 


164  MESSAGE    TO    CONGRESS. 

results.  In  full  view  of  my  great  responsibility  to  my 
God  and  to  my  country,  I  earnestly  beg  the  attention 
of  Congress  and  the  people  to  the  subject. 

Abraham  Lincoln. 
March  6,  1862. 


MESSAGE   TO   CONGRESS. 

Fellow-Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives: — The  act  entitled  "An  act  for  the 
release  of  certain  persons  held  to  service  or  labor  in 
the  District  of  Columbia"  has  this  day  been  approved 
and  signed. 

I  have  never  doubted  the  constitutional  authority  of 
Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  this  District ;  and  I  have 
ever  desired  to  see  the  National  Capital  freed  from  the 
institution  in  some  satisfactory  way.  Hence  there  has 
never  been  in  my  mind  any  question  upon  the  subject 
except  the  one  of  expediency,  arising  in  view  of  all  the 
circumstances.  If  there  be  matters  within  and  about 
this  act  which  might  have  taken  a  course  or  shape 
more  satisfactory  to  my  judgment,  I  do  not  attempt  to 
specify  them.  I  am  gratified  that  the  two  principles 
of  compensation  and  colonization  are  both  recognized 
and  practically  applied  in  the  act. 

In  the  matter  of  compensation,  it  is  provided  that 
claims  may  be  presented  within  ninety  days  from  the 
passage  of  the  act,  "but  not  thereafter";  and  there  is 


REVOKING    GENERAL    HUNTER'S    ORDER.  165 

no  saving  for  minors,  married  women,  insane  or  absent 
persons.  I  presume  this  is  an  omission  by  mere  over- 
sight,  and   I   recommend  that   it   be  supplied   by   an 

amendatory  or  supplemental  act. 

Abraham  Lincoln. 
April  16,  1 362. 


A   PROCLAMATION. 

(Revoking  General  Hunter's  Order  of  Military  Emancipation.') 
Whereas,  There  appears  in  the  public  prints  what 
purports    to    be    a    proclamation    of     Major-General 
Hunter,  in  the  words  and  figures  following,  to-wit: 
(General  Orders  No.  ii.) 
Headquarters,   Department  of  the  South, 
Hilton  Head,  Port  Royal,  S.  C,  May  9th,  1862. 
The    three    States  of  Georgia,   Florida,  and   South 
Carolina,  comprising  the  Military  Department  of  the 
South,    having   deliberately   declared    themselves    no 
longer  under  the  protection  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  having  taken  up  arms  against  the  said 
United    States,    it    became    a    military   necessity    to 
declare  martial  law.     This  was  accordingly  done  on 
the    twenty-fifth    day  of    April,    1862.      Slavery    and 
martial  law  in  a  free   country  are   altogether  incom- 
patible;   the  persons  in  these  three   States — Georgia, 
Florida,  and  South  Carolina, — heretofore  held  as  slaves, 
are  therefore  declared  forever  free. 

By  Command  of  Maj.-Gen.  David  Hunter: 

(Official.)  Ed.  W.  Smith, 

Acting  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 


l66  REVOKING    GENERAL    HUNTER'S    ORDER. 

And  Whereas  the  same  is  producing  some  excite- 
ment and  misunderstanding: 

Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  proclaim  and  declare  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  had  no  knowledge,  informa- 
tion, or  belief  of  an  intention  on  the  part  of  General 
Hunter  to  issue  such  a  proclamation;  nor  has  it  yet 
any  authentic  information  that  the  document  is 
genuine.  And  further,  that  neither  General  Hunter, 
nor  any  other  commander  or  person,  has  been  author- 
ized by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  make 
a  proclamation  declaring  the  slaves  of  any  State  free ; 
and  that  the  supposed  proclamation  now  in  question, 
whether  genuine  or  false,  is  altogether  void  so  far  as 
respects  such  declaration. 

I  further  make  known  that,  whether  it  be  competent 
for  me,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy, 
to  declare  the  slaves  of  any  State  or  States  free,  and 
whether,  at  any  time,  or  in  any  case,  it  shall  become  a 
necessity  indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
Government  to  exercise  such  supposed  power,  are 
questions  which,  under  my  responsibility,  I  reserve  to 
myself,  and  which  I  cannot  feel  justified  in  leaving  to 
the  decision  of  commanders  in  the  field.  These  are 
totally  different  questions  from  those  of  police  regula- 
tions in  armies  and  camps. 

On  the  6th  day  of  March  last,  by  a  special  message, 
I  recommended  to  Congress  the  adoption  of  a  joint 
resolution,  to  be  substantially  as  follows : 


REVOKING    GENERAL    HUNTER'S    ORDER.  167 


Resolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  cooperate  with  any- 
State  which  may  adopt  a  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,  giving 
to  such  State  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by  such  State,  in  its  dis- 
cretion, to  compensate  for  the  inconveniences,  public  and  private 
produced  by  such  change  of  system. 


' 


The  resolution,  in  the  language  above  quoted,  was 
adopted  by  large  majorities  in  both  branches  of  Con- 
gress, and  now  stands  an  authentic,  definite,  and 
solemn  proposal  of  the  nation  to  the  States  and  people 
most  immediately  interested  in  the  subject  matter. 
To  the  people  of  those  States  I  now  earnestly  appeal. 
I  do  not  argue — I  beseech  you  to  make  arguments  for 
yourselves.  You  cannot,  if  you  would,  be  blind  to  the 
signs  of  the  times.  I  beg  of  you  a  calm  and  enlarged 
consideration  of  them,  ranging,  if  it  may  be,  far  above 
personal  and  partisan  politics.  This  proposal  makes 
common  cause  for  a  common  object,  casting  no 
reproaches  upon  any.  It  acts  not  the  Pharisee.  The 
change  it  contemplates  would  come  gently  as  the  dews 
of  Heaven,  not  rending  or  wrecking  anything.  Will 
you  not  embrace  it?  So  much  good  has  not  been 
done,  by  one  effort,  in  all  past  time,  as  in  the  Provi- 
dence of  God  it  is  now  your  high  privilege  to  do. 
May  the  vast  future  not  have  to  lament  that  you  have 
neglected  it. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my 
hand,  and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be 
affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  nineteenth  day 
of  May,   in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 


l68       AUTHORIZING    EMPLOYMENT    OF    CONTRABANDS. 

hundred    and  sixty-two,  and    of    the  Independence  of 
the  United  States  the  eighty-sixth. 

By  the  President :  Abraham  Lincoln. 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State. 


ORDER     AUTHORIZING      EMPLOYMENT     OF 

CONTRABANDS. 

War  Department,   Washington,  July  22,  1862. 

First.  Ordered  that  military  commanders  within  the 
States  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas,  and 
Arkansas,  in  an  ordinary  manner  .seize  and  use  any 
property,  real  or  personal,  which  may  be  necessary  or 
convenient  for  their  several  commands,  for  supplies, 
or  for  other  military  purposes;  and  that  while  prop- 
erty may  be  destroyed  for  proper  military  objects, 
none  shall  be  destroyed  in  wantonness  or  malice. 

Second.  That  military  and  naval  commanders  shall 
employ  as  laborers,  within  and  from  said  States,  so 
many  persons  of  African  descent  as  can  be  advan- 
tageously used  for  military  or  naval  purposes,  giving 
them  reasonable  wages  for  their  labor. 

Third.  That,  as  to  both  property  and  persons  of 
African  descent,  accounts  shall  be  kept  sufficiently 
accurate  and  in  detail  to  show  quantities  and  amounts, 
and  from  whom  both  property  and  such  persons  shall 
have  come,  as  a  basis  upon  which  compensation  can  be 


LETTER    TO    HORACE    GREELEY.  169 

made  in  proper  cases ;  and  the  several  departments  of 
this   Government   shall  attend  to   and   perform  their 
appropriate  parts  toward  the  execution  of  these  orders. 
By  order  of  the  President : 

Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War. 


LETTER   TO    HORACE   GREELEY. 

Executive  Mansion,   Washington,  Aug.  22,  1862. 

Hon.   Horace  Greeley. 

Dear  Sir: — I  have  just  read  yours  of  the  19th, 
addressed  to  myself  through  the  New  York  Tribune. 
If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or  assumptions  of  fact 
which  I  may  know  to  be  erroneous,  I  do  not,  now  and 
here,  controvert  them.  If  there  be  in  it  any  inferences 
which  I  may  believe  to  be  falsely  drawn,  I  do  not,  now 
and  here,  argue  against  them.  If  there  be  perceptible 
in  it  an  impatient  and  dictatorial  tone,  I  waive  it  in 
deference  to  an  old  friend  whose  heart  I  have  always 
supposed  to  be  right. 

As  to  the  policy  I  "seem  to  be  pursuing,"  as  you 
say,  I  have  not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt. 

I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  the  short- 
est way  under  the  Constitution.  The  sooner  the 
National  authority  can  be  restored,  the  nearer  the 
Union  will  be  "the  Union  as  it  was."  If  there  be 
those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could 
at  the   same   time   save  Slavery,  I   do  not  agree  with 


170         PRELIMINARY    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION. 

them.  If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the 
Union   unless  they  could   at   the   same   time   destroy 

.  Slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  My  paramount 
object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  is  not 
either  to  save  or  destroy  Slavery.  If  I  could  save  the 
Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it;  and 
if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do 
it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving 
others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that.  What  I  do  about 
Slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do  because  I  believe  it 
helps  to  save  the  Union;  and  what  I  forbear,  1  forbear 
because  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help  to  save  the 
Union.  I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall  believe  what 
I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  when- 
ever I  shall  believe  doing  more  will  help  the  cause.  I 
shall  try  to  correct  errors  when  shown  to  be  errors, 
and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they  shall 
appear  to  be  true  views.  I  have  here  stated  my  pur- 
pose   according   to   my   view   of   official    duty;    and   I 

:  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft-expressed    personal 

wish  that  all  men  everywhere  could  be  free.     Yours, 

A.  Lincoln. 


PRELIMINARY    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMA- 
TION. 

I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy  thereof,   do   hereby  proclaim  and    declare  that 


PRELIMINARY    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION.  171 

hereafter,  as  heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted 
for  the  object  of  practically  restoring  the  constitu- 
tional relation  between  the  United  States  and  each  of 
the  States,  and  the  people  thereof,  in  which  States 
that  relation  is  or  may  be  suspended  or  disturbed. 
That  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  the  next  meeting  of  Con- 
gress, to  again  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  practical 
measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid  to  the  free  accept- 
ance or  rejection  of  all  the  Slave  States,  so-called,  the 
people  whereof  may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  and  which  States  may  then  have 
voluntarily  adopted,  or  thereafter  may  voluntarily 
adopt,  the  immediate  or  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery 
within  their  respective  limits;  and  that  the  effort  to 
colonize  persons  of  African  descent  with  their  consent 
upon  this  continent  or  elsewhere,  with  the  previously 
obtained  consent  of  the  government  existing  there, 
will  be  continued.  That  on  the  first  day  of  January, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any 
State  or  any  designated  part  of  a  State  the  people 
whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States,  shall  be  then,  t  hence forzvard  and  forever  free; 
and  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States, 
including  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof, 
will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such  per- 
sons, and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons, 
or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for 
their   actual  freedom.      That  the   Executive   will,   on 


172         PRELIMINARY    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION. 

the  first  day  of  January  aforesaid,  by  proclamation 
designate  the  States  and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in 
which  the  people  thereof,  respectively,  shall  then  be 
in  rebellion  against  the  United  States;  and  the  fact 
that  any  State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that 
day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  by  members  chosen  thereto  at 
elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of 
such  State  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence 
of  strong  countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclu- 
sive evidence  that  such  State  and  the  people  thereof 
are  not  then  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States. 

That  attention  is  hereby  called  to  an  act  of  Con- 
gress entitled  "An  act  to  make  an  additional  article  of 
war,"  approved  March  13,  1862,  and  which  act  is  in 
the  words  and  figures  following: 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  here- 
after the  following  shall  be  promulgated  as  an  additional  Article  of 
War,  for  the  government  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States,  and 
shall  be  observed  and  obeyed  as  such : 

Article All  officers  or  persons  in  the  military  or  naval  service 

of  the  United  States  are  prohibited  from  employing  an}r  of  the 
forces  under  their  respective  commands  for  the  purpose  of  return- 
ing fugitives  from  service  or  labor  who  may  have  escaped  from 
any  persons  to  whom  such  service,  or  labor  is  claimed  to  be  due ; 
and  any  officer  who  shall  be  found  guilty  by  a  court-martial  of 
violating  this  article  shall  be  dismissed  from  the  service. 

Section  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  this  act  shall  take 
effect  from  and  after  its  passage. 

Also  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections  of  an  act 
entitled  "An  act  to  suppress  insurrection,   to  punish 


PRELIMINARY    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION.         173 

treason  and  rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  prop- 
erty of  rebels,  and  for  other  purposes,"  approved  July 
17,  1862,  and  which  sections  are  in  the  words  and 
figures  following: 

Section  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  slaves  of  persons 
who  shall  hereafter  be  engaged  in  rebellion  against  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  or  who  shall  in  any  way  give  aid  or 
comfort  thereto,  escaping  from  such  persons  and  taking  refuge 
within  the  lines  of  the  army ;  and  all  slaves  captured  from  such 
persons  or  deserted  by  them,  and  coming  under  the  control  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States ;  and  all  slaves  of  such  persons 
found  on  (or  being  within)  any  place  occupied  by  rebel  forces 
and  afterwards  occupied  by  the  forces  of' the  United  States,  shall 
be  deemed  captives  of  war,  and  shall  be  forever  free  of  their  serv- 
itude, and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 

Section  10.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  no  slave  escaping 
into  any  State,  Territory,  or  the  District  of  Columbia,  from  any 
other  State,  shall  be  delivered  up,  or  in  any  way  impeded  or  hin- 
dered of  his  liberty,  except  for  crime,  or  some  offense  against  the 
laws,  unless  the  person  claiming  said  fugitive  shall  first  make  oath 
that  the  person  to  whom  the  labor  or  service  of  such  fugitive  is 
alleged  to  be  due  is  his  lawful  owner,  and  has  not  been  in  arms 
against  the  United  States  in  the  present  rebellion,  nor  in  any  way 
given  aid  and  comfort  thereto;  and  no  person  engaged  in  the 
military  or  naval  sendee  of  the  United  States  shall,  under  any 
pretense  whatever,  assume  to  decide  on  the  validity  of  the  claim 
of  any  person  to  the  service  or  labor  of  any  other  person,  or  sur- 
render up  any  such  person  to  the  claimant,  on  pain  of  being  dis- 
missed from  the  service. 

And  I  do  hereby  enjoin'  upon  and  order  all  persons 
engaged  in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the 
United  States  to  observe,  obey,  and  enforce,  within 
their  respective  spheres  of  service,  the  act  and  sec- 
tions above  recited. 

And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time  recommend  that 


174  FINAL    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION. 

all  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  shall  have 
remained  loyal  thereto  throughout  the  rebellion  shall 
(upon  the  restoration  of  the  constitutional  relation 
between  the  United  States  and  their  respective  States 
and  people,  if  that  relation  shall  have  been  suspended 
or  disturbed)  be  compensated  for  all  losses  by  acts  of 
the  United  States,  including  the  loss  of  slaves. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twenty-second 
day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thou- 
sand eight  hundred   and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  the  eighty-seventh. 
By  the  President :  Abraham  Lincoln. 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State. 


FINAL   EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  On  the  twenty-second  day  of  September, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-two,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  containing,  among 
other  things,  the  following,  to  wit: — 

"That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all 
persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State  or  designated 
part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in 
rebellion   against    the  United   States,   shall  be   then, 


FINAL    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION.  1 75 

thenceforward  and  forever  free,  and  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and 
maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no 
act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in 
any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

4 'That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States  and 
parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof 
respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States;  and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the 
people  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith 
represented  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by 
members  chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  major- 
ity of  the  qualified  voters  of  such  State  shall  have 
participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong  counter- 
vailing testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence  that 
such  State  and  the  people  thereof  are  not  then  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States." 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested 
as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the 
United  States,  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion 
against  the  authority  and  Government  of  the  United 
States,  and  as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure 
for  suppressing  said  rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my 
purpose   so   to    do,   publicly   proclaimed   for   the   full 


176  FINAL    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION. 

period  of  one  hundred  days  from  the  day  first  above- 
mentioned,  order,  designate,  as  the  States  and  parts  of 
States  wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively  are  this 
day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  the  follow- 
ing, to  wit :  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana,  except  the 
parishes  of  St.  Bernard,  Plaquemines,  Jefferson,  St. 
John,  St.  Charles,  St.  James,  Ascension,  Assumption, 
Terre  Bonne,  Lafourche,  St.  Mary,  St.  Martin,  and 
Orleans,  including  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  Missis- 
sippi, Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina, 
North  Carolina,  and  Virginia,  except  the  forty-eight 
counties  designated  as  West  Virginia,  and  also  the 
counties  of  Berkeley,  Accomac,  Northampton,  Eliza- 
beth City,  York,  Princess  Ann,  and  Norfolk,  including 
the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth,  and  which 
excepted  parts  are,  for  the  present,  left  precisely  as  if 
this  proclamation  were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose 
aforesaid,  I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held 
as  slaves  within  said  designated  States  and  parts  of 
States  are,  and  henceforward  shall  be,  free;  and  that 
the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  includ- 
ing the  military  and  naval  authorities  thereof,  will 
recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said  persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to 
be  free  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary    t 
self-defense,    and  I  recommend  to    them  that    in   all 
cases,  when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  reason- 
able wages. 


ACCOUNT    OF    THE    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION.    177 

And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such 
persons  of  suitable  condition  will  be  received  into  the 
armed  service  of  the  United  States  to  garrison  forts, 
positions,  stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  ves- 
sels of  all  sorts  in  said  service. 

And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of 
justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution,  upon  military 
necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  man- 
kind and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  name 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,   this   first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred    and   sixty-three,    and  of    the    Independence 
of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty-seventh. 
By  the  President :  Abraham  Lincoln. 

W.  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State. 


ACCOUNT    OF    THE     EMANCIPATION     PROC- 
LAMATION. 

{Related  by  the  President  to  F.  B.  Carpenter,  February  6, 1864.) 

"It  had  got  to  be, "said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "midsummer, 
1862.  Things  had  gone  on  from  bad  to  worse,  until 
I  felt  that  we  had  reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on  the 
plan  of  operations  we  had  been  pursuing;  that  we  had 
about  played  our  last  card,  and  must  change  our 
tactics,  or  lose  the  game.     I  now  determined  upon  the 


I78      ACCOUNT    OF    THE    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION. 

adoption  of  the  emancipation  policy;  and  without 
consultation  with,  or  the  knowledge  of,  the  Cabinet,  I 
prepared  the  original  draft  of  the  proclamation,  and, 
after  much  anxious  thought,  called  a  Cabinet  meeting 
upon  the  subject.  This  was  the  last  of  July  or  the 
first  part  of  the  month  of  August,  1862."  [The  exact 
date  was  July  22,  1862.]  .  .  .  "All  were  present 
excepting  Mr.  Blair,  the  Postmaster-General,  who  was 
absent  at  the  opening  of  the  discussion,  but  came  in 
subsequently.  I  said  to  the  Cabinet  that  I  had 
resolved  upon  this  step,  and  had  not  called  them 
together  to  ask  their  advice,  but  to  lay  the  subject- 
matter  of  a  proclamation  before  them,  suggestions  as 
to  which  would  be  in  order  after  they  had  heard  it 
read.  Mr.  Lovejoy  was  in  error  when  he  informed 
you  that  it  excited  no  comment  excepting  on  the  part 
of  Secretary  Seward.  Various  suggestions  were 
offered.  Secretary  Chase  wished  the  language 
stronger  in  reference  to  the  arming  of  the  blacks. 

"'Mr.  Blair,  after  he  came  in,  deprecated  the  policy 
on  the  ground  that  it  would  cost  the  administration 
the  fall  elections.  Nothing,  however,  was  offered 
that  I  had  not  already  fully  anticipated  and  settled  in 
my  own  mind,  until  Secretary  Seward  spoke.  He 
said  in  substance,  'Mr.  President,  I  approve  of  the 
proclamation,  but  I  question  the  expediency  of  its 
issue  at  this  juncture.  The  depression  of  the  public 
mind,  consequent  upon  our  repeated  reverses,  is  so 
great  that  I  fear  the  effect  of  so  important  a  step.     It 


ACCOUNT    OF    THE    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION.    1 79 

may  be  viewed  as  the  last  measure  of  an  exhausted 
government,  a  cry  for  help;  the  Government  stretch- 
ing forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia,  instead  of  Ethiopia 
stretching  forth  her  hands  to  the  Government.'  His 
idea,"  said  the  President,  "was  that  it  would  be  con- 
sidered our  last  shriek  on  the  retreat. ' '  [This  was  his 
precise  expression.]  "  'Now,'  continued  Mr.  Seward, 
'while  I  approve  the  measure,  I  suggest,  sir,  that  you 
postpone  its  issue  until  you  can  give  it  to  the  country 
supported  by  military  success,  instead  of  issuing  it,  as 
would  be  the  case  now,  upon  the  greatest  disasters  of 
the  war.'  "  Mr.  Lincoln  continued:  "The  wisdom  of 
the  view  of  the  Secretary  of  State  struck  me  with 
great  force.  It  was  an  aspect  of  the  case  that,  in  all 
my  thought  upon  the  subject,  I  had  entirely  over- 
looked. The  result  was  that  I  put  the  draft  of  the 
proclamation  aside,  as  you  do  your  sketch  for  a  pic- 
ture, waiting  for  a  victory. 

"From  time  to  time  I  added  or  changed  a  line, 
touching  it  up  here  and  there,  anxiously  watching  the 
progress  of  events.  Well,  the  next  news  we  had  was 
of  Pope's  disaster  at  Bull  Run.  Things  looked  darker 
than  ever.  Finally  came  the  week  of  the  battle  of 
Antietam.  I  determined  to  wait  no  longer.  The 
news  came,  I  think,  on  Wednesday,  that  the  advan- 
tage was  on  our  side.  I  was  then  staying  at  the  Sol- 
diers' Home"  [three  miles  out  of  Washington]. 
"Here  I  finished  writing  the  second  draft  of  the 
preliminary    proclamation;    came    up    on     Saturday; 


l8o      HYMN    AFTER    THE    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION. 

called   the    Cabinet  together    to  hear  it,   and   it   was 
published  on  the  following  Monday. ' ' 


HYMN    AFTER   THE    EMANCIPATION    PROC- 
LAMATION. 

Giver  of  all  that  crowns  our  days, 
With  Grateful  hearts  we  sing  thy  praise ; 
Through  deep  and  desert  led  by  thee, 
Our  promised  land  at  last  we  see. 

Ruler  of  nations,  judge  our  cause ! 
If  we  have  kept  thy  holy  laws, 
The  sons  of  Belial  curse  in  vain 
The  day  that  rends  the  captive's  chain. 

Thou  God  of  vengeance!  Israel's  Lord! 
Break  in  their  grasp  the  shield  and  sword, 
And  make  thy  righteous  judgments  known 
Till  all  thy  foes  are  overthrown ! 

Then,  Father,  lay  thy  healing  hand 
In  mercy  on  our  stricken  land; 
Lead  all  its  wanderers  to  the  fold, 
And  be  their  Shepherd  as  of  old. 

So  shall  one  Nation's  song  ascend 
To  Thee,  our  Ruler,  Father,  Friend, 
While  Heaven's  wide  arch  resounds  again 
With  Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men! 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 


THE   DEATH    OF    SLAVERY,  l8l 

THE    DEATH   OF   SLAVERY. 

O    thou,   great  Wrong,   that,    through  the  slow-paced 

years, 
Didst  hold  thy  millions  fettered,  and  didst  wield 
The  scourge  that  drove  the  laborer  to  the  field, 
And  turn  a  stony  gaze  on  human  tears, 

Thy  cruel  reign  is  o'er; 

Thy  bondmen  crouch  no  more 
In  terror  at  the  menace  of  thine  eye; 
For  He  who  marks  the  bounds  of  guilty  power, 
Long-suffering,  hath  heard  the  captive's  cry, 
And  touched  his  shackles  at  the  appointed  hour, 
And  lo!  they  fall,  and  he  whose  limbs  they  galled 
Stands  in  his  native  manhood,  disenthralled. 

A  shout  of  joy  from  the  redeemed  is  sent ; 
Ten  thousand  hamlets  swell  the  hymn  of  thanks ; 
Our  rivers  roll  exulting,  and  their  banks 
Send  up  hosannas  to  the  firmament ! 

Fields  where  the  bondman's  toil 

No  more  shall  trench  the  soil, 
Seem  now  to  bask  in  a  serener  day ; 
The  meadow-birds  sing  sweeter,  and  the  airs 
Of  Heaven  with  more  caressing  softness  play, 
Welcoming  man  to  liberty  like  theirs. 
A  glory  clothes  the  land  from  sea  to  sea, 
For  the  great  land  and  all  its  coasts  are  free. 

Copyrighted,  1883,  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 


182  THE    DEATH    OF    SLAVERY. 

Within  that  land  wert  thou  enthroned  of  late, 
And  they  by  whom  the  nation's  laws  were  made, 
And  they  who  filled  its  judgment  seats  obeyed 
Thy  mandate,  rigid  as  the  will  of  Fate — 

Fierce  men  at  thy  right  hand, 

With  gesture  of  command, 
Gave  forth  the  word  that  none  might  dare  gainsay; 
And  grave  and  reverend  ones,  who  loved  thee  not, 
Shrank  from  thy  presence,  and  in  blank  dismay 
Choked  down,  unuttered,  the  rebellious  thought; 
While  meaner  cowards,  mingling  with  thy  train, 
Proved,  from  the  book  of  God,  thy  right  to  reign. 

Great  as  thou  wert,  and  feared  from  shore  to  shore, 
The  wrath  of  Heaven  o'ertook  thee  in  thy  pride; 
Thou  sit'st  a  ghastly  shadow;  by  thy  side 
Thy  once  strong  arms  hang  nerveless  evermore. 

And  they  who  quailed  but  now 

Before  thy  lowering  brow 
Devote  thy  memory  to  scorn  and  shame, 
And  scoff  at  the  pale,  powerless  thing  thou  art. 
And  they  who  ruled  in  thine  imperial  name, 
Subdued,  and  standing  sullenly  apart, 
Scowl  at  the  hands  that  overthrew  thy  reign, 
And  shattered  at  a  blow  the  prisoner's  chain. 

Well  was  thy  doom  deserved ;  thou  didst  not  spare 
Life's  tenderest  ties,  but  cruelly  didst  part 
Husband  and  wife,  and  from  the  mother's  heart 


THE    DEATH    OF    SLAVERY.  183 

Didst  wrest  her  children,  deaf  to  shriek  and  prayer ; 

Thy  inner  lair  became 

The  haunt  of  guilty  shame ; 
Thy  lash  dropped  blood ;  the  murderer,  at  thy  side, 
Showed  his  red  hands,  nor  feared  the  vengeance  due. 
Thou  didst  sow  earth  with  crimes,  and,  far  and  wide, 
A  harvest  of  uncounted  miseries  grew, 
Until  the  measure  of  thy  sins  at  last 
Was  full,  and  then  the  avenging  bolt  was  cast! 

Go  now,  accursed  of  God,  and  take  thy  place 
With  hateful  memories  of  the  elder  time, 
With  many  a  wasting  plague,  and  nameless  crime, 
And  bloody  war  that  thinned  the  human  race ; 

With  the  Black  Death,*  whose  way 

Through  wailing  cities  lay, 
Worship  of  Moloch,  tyrannies  that  built 
The  Pyramids,  and  cruel  creeds  that  taught 
To  avenge  a  fancied  guilt  by  deeper  guilt — 
Death  at  the  stake  to  those  that  held  them  not. 
Lo !  the  foul  phantoms,  silent  in  the  gloom 
Of  the  flown  ages,  part  to  yield  thee  room. 

I  see  the  better  years  that  hasten  by 

Carry  thee  back  into  that  shadowy  past, 

Where,  in  the  dusty  spaces,  void  and  vast, 

The  graves  of  those  whom  thou  hast  murdered  lie. 

The  slave-pen,  through  whose  door 

Thy  victims  pass  no  more, 
*A  pestilence  which  swept  over  the  Old  World  (1347-1350). 


184  Lincoln's  letters. 

Is  there,  and  there  shall  the  grim  block  remain 
At  which  the  slave  was  sold;  while  at  thy  feet 
Scourges  and  engines  of  restraint  and  pain 
Moulder  and  rust  by  thine  eternal  seat. 
There,  mid  the  symbols  that  proclaim  thy  crimes, 
Dwell  thou,  a  warning  to  the  coming  times. 

William  Cullen  Bryant. 


LINCOLN'S    LETTERS. 

But  Lincoln  repelled  no  one  whom  he  believed  to 
speak  to  him  in  good  faith  and  with  patriotic  purpose. 
No  good  advice  would  go  unheeded.  No  candid 
criticism  would  offend  him.  No  honest  opposition, 
while  it  might  pain  him,  would  produce  a  lasting 
alienation  of  feeling  between  him  and  the  opponent. 
It  may  truly  be  said  that  few  men  in  power  have  ever 
been  exposed  to  more  daring  attempts  to  direct  their 
course,  to  severer  censure  of  their  acts,  and  to  more 
cruel  misrepresentation  of  their  motives.  And  all  this 
he  met  with  that  good-natured  humor  peculiarly  his 
own,  and  with  untiring  effort  to  see  the  right  and  to 
impress  it  upon  those  who  differed  from  him.  The 
conversations  he  had  and  the  correspondence  he 
carried  on  upon  matters  of  public  interest,  not  only 
with  men  in  official  position,  but  with  private  citizens, 
were  almost  unceasing,  and  in  a  large  number  of 
public  letters,  written  ostensibly  to  meetings,  or  com- 
mittees, or  persons  of  importance,  he  addressed  him- 
self  directly   to   the   popular    mind.      Most   of  these 


Lincoln's  letters.  185 

letters  stand  among  the  finest  monuments  of  our  polit- 
ical literature.  Thus  he  presented  the  singular 
spectacle  of  a  President  who,  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
civil  war,  with  unprecedented  duties  weighing  upon 
him,  was  constantly  in  person  debating  the  great 
features  of  his  policy  with  the  people. 

While  in  this  manner  he  exercised  an  ever-increas- 
ing influence  upon  the  popular  understanding,  his 
sympathetic  nature  endeared  him  more  and  more  to 
the  popular  heart.  In  vain  did  journals  and  speakers 
of  the  opposition  represent  him  as  a  light-minded 
trifler,  who  amused  himself  with  frivolous  story-telling 
and  coarse  jokes,  while  the  blood  of  the  people  was 
flowing  in  streams.  The  people  knew  that  the  man  at 
the  head  of  affairs,  on  whose  haggard  face  the  twinkle 
of  humor  so  frequently  changed  into  an  expression  of 
profoundest  sadness,  was  more  than  any  other  deeply 
distressed  by  the  suffering  he  witnessed ;  that  he  felt 
the  pain  of  every  wound  that  was  inflicted  on  the 
battle  field,  and  the  anguish  of  every  woman  or  child 
who  had  lost  husband  or  father;  that  whenever  he 
could  he  was  eager  to  alleviate  sorrow,  and  that  his 
mercy  was  never  implored  in  vain.  They  looked  to 
him  as  one  who  was  with  them  and  of  them  in  all  their 
hopes  and  fears,  their  joys  and  sorrows, — who  laughed 
with  them  and  wept  with  them ;  and  as  his  heart  was 
theirs,  so  their  hearts  turned  to  him.  His  popularity 
was  far  different  from  that  of  Washington,  who  was 
revered  with  awe,  or  that  of  Jackson,  the  unconquer- 


l86  LETTER    TO    J.    C.    CONKLING. 

able  hero,  for  whom  party  enthusiasm  never  grew 
weary  of  shouting.  To  Abraham  Lincoln  the  people 
became  bound  by  a  genuine  sentimental  attachment. 
It  was  not  a  matter  of  respect,  or  confidence,  or  party 
pride,  for  this  feeling  spread  far  beyond  the  boundary 
lines  of  his  party ;  it  was  an  affair  of  the  heart,  inde- 
pendent of  mere  reasoning.  When  the  soldiers  in  the 
field  or  their  folks  at  home  spoke  of  "Father  Abra- 
ham," there  was  no  cant  in  it.  They  felt  that  their 
President  was  really  caring  for  them  as  a  father 
would,  and  that  they  could  go  to  him,  every  one  of 
them,  as  they  would  go  to  a  father,  and  talk  to  him 
of  what  troubled  them,  sure  to  find  a  willing  ear  and 
tender  sympathy.  Thus,  their  President,  and  his 
cause,  and  his  endeavors,  and  his  success  gradually 
became  to  them  almost  matters  of  family  concern. 
And  this  popularity  carried  him  triumphantly  through 
the  presidential  election  of  1864,  in  spite  of  an  opposi- 
tion within  his  own  party  which  at  first  seemed  very 
formidable.  Carl  Schurz. 

From  iiAbraka7n  Lincoln." 


LETTER   TO   J.  C.  CONKLING. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  Aug.  26,  1863. 
Hon.   James  C.   Conkling. 

My  Dear  Sir: — Your  letter  inviting  me  to  attend  a 
mass  meeting  of  unconditional  Union  men,  to  be  held 
at  the  capital  of  Illinois  on  the  third  day  of  September, 
has  been  received.     It  would  be  very  agreeable  to  me 


LETTER   TO    J.    C.    CONKLING.  187 

thus  to  meet  my  old  friends  at  my  own  home ;  but  I 
cannot  just  now  be  absent  from  this  city  so  long  as  a 
visit  there  would  require.  The  meeting  is  to  be  of  all 
those  who  maintain  unconditional  devotion  to  the 
Union;  and  I  am  sure  that  my  old  political  friends 
will  thank  me  for  tendering,  as  I  do,  the  nation's 
gratitude  to  those  other  noble  men  whom  no  partisan 
malice  or  partisan  hope  can  make  false  to  the  nation's 
life.  There  are  those  who  are  dissatisfied  with  me. 
To  such  I  would  say:  You  desire  peace,  and  you 
blame  me  that  we  do  not  have  it.  But  how  can  we 
attain  it?  There  are  but  three  conceivable  ways: 
First,  to  suppress  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms.  This 
I  am  trying  to  do.  Are  you  for  it?  If  you  are,  so  far 
we  are  agreed.  If  you  are  not  for  it,  a  second  way  is 
to  give  up  the  Union.  I  am  against  this.  If  you  are, 
you  should  say  so,  plainly.  If  you  are  not  for  force, 
nor  yet  for  dissolution,  there  only  remains  some 
imaginable  compromise.  I  do  not  believe  that  any 
compromise  embracing  the  maintenance  of  the  Union 
is  now  possible.  All  that  I  learn  leads  to  a  directly 
opposite  belief.  The  strength  of  the  rebellion  is  its 
military — its  army.  That  army  dominates  all  the 
country  and  all  the  people  within  its  range.  Any 
offer  of  any  terms  made  by  any  man  or  men  within 
that  range  in  opposition  to  that  army,  is  simply  noth- 
ing for  the  present,  because  such  man  or  men  have  no 
power  whatever  to  enforce  their  side  of  a  compromise, 
if  one  were  made  with  them.     To  illustrate :  Suppose 


l88  LETTER    TO    J.     C.     CONKLING. 

refugees  from  the  South  and  peace  men  of  the  North 
get  together  in  convention,  and  frame  and  proclaim  a 
compromise  embracing  the  restoration  of  the  Union. 
In  what  way  can  that  compromise  be  used  to  keep  Gen- 
eral Lee's  army  out  of  Pennsylvania?  General  Meade's 
army  can  keep  Lee's  army  out  of  Pennsylvania,  and  I 
think  can  ultimately  drive  it  out  of  existence.  But  no 
paper  compromise  to  which  the  controllers  of  General 
Lee's  army  are  not  agreed,  can  at  all  affect  that  army. 
In  an  effort  at  such  compromise  we  would  waste  time, 
which  the  enemy  would  improve  to  our  disadvantage, 
and  that  would  be  all.  A  compromise,  to  be  effective, 
must  be  made  either  with  those  who  control  the  rebel 
army,  or  with  the  people,  first  liberated  from  the 
domination  of  that  army  by  the  success  of  our  army. 
Now,  allow  me  to  assure  you  that  no  word  or  intima- 
tion from  the  rebel  army,  or  from  any  of  the  men 
controlling  it,  in  relation  to  any  peace  compromises, 
has  ever  come  to  my  knowledge  or  belief.  All 
charges  and  intimations  to  the  contrary  are  deceptive 
and  groundless.  And  I  promise  you  that  if  any  such 
proposition  shall  hereafter  come,  it  shall  not  be 
rejected  and  kept  secret  from  you.  I  freely  acknowl- 
edge myself  to  be  the  servant  of  the  people,  according 
to  the  bond  of  service,  the  United  States  Constitution ; 
and  that,  as  such,  I  am  responsible  to  them.  But,  to 
be  plain.  You  are  dissatisfied  with  me  about  the  negro. 
Quite  likely  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  between 
you  and  myself  upon  that  subject.     I  certainly  wish 


LETTER    TO    J.     C.     CONKLING.  189 

that  all  men  could  be  free,  while  you,  I  suppose,  do 
not.  Yet  I  have  neither  adopted  nor  proposed  any 
measure  which  is  not  consistent  with  even  your  view, 
provided  you  are  for  the  Union.  I  suggested  compen- 
sated emancipation,  to  which  you  replied  that  you 
wished  not  to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes.  But  I  have 
not  asked  you  to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes,  except  in 
such  way  as  to  save  you  from  greater  taxation,  to  save 
the  Union  exclusively  by  other  means. 

You  dislike  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and 
perhaps  would  have  it  retracted.  You  say  it  is  uncon- 
stitutional. I  think  differently.  I  think  that  the 
Constitution  invests  its  Commander-in-Chief  with  the 
law  of  war  in  the  time  of  war.  The  most  that  can  be 
said,  if  so  much,  is  that  the  slaves  are  property.  Is 
there,  has  there  ever  been,  any  question  that  by  the 
law  of  war,  property,  both  of  enemies  and  friends,  may 
be  taken  when  needed?  And  is  it  not  needed  when- 
ever taking  it  helps  us  or  hurts  the  enemy?  Armies, 
the  world  over,  destroy  enemies'  property  when 
they  cannot  use  it;  and  even  destroy  their  own  to 
keep  it  from  the  enemy.  Civilized  belligerents  do  all 
in  their  power  to  help  themselves  or  hurt  the  enemy, 
except  a  few  things  regarded  as  barbarous  or  cruel. 
Among  the  exceptions  are  the  massacre  of  vanquished 
foes  and  non-combatants,  male  and  female.  But  the 
proclamation,  as  law,  is  valid  or  is  not  valid.  If  it  is 
not  valid  it  needs  no  retraction.     If  it  is  valid  it  can- 


not   be   retracted,  any  more    than  the    dead    can  be 


/ 


190  LETTER    TO    J.     C.    CONKLING. 

brought  to  life.  Some  of  you  profess  to  think  that  its 
retraction  would  operate  favorably  for  the  Union. 
Why  better  after  the  retraction  than  before  the  issue? 
There  was  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  of  trial  to  sup- 
press the  rebellion  before  the  proclamation  was  issued, 
the  last  one  hundred  days  of  which  passed  under  an 
explicit  notice  that  it  was  coming  unless  averted  by 
those  in  revolt  returning  to  their  allegiance.  The 
war  has  certainly  progressed  as  favorably  for  us  since 
.  the  issue  of  the  proclamation  as  before.  I  know  as 
fully  as  one  can  know  the  opinions  of  others,  that 
some  of  the  commanders  of  our  armies  in  the  field, 
who  have  given  us  our  most  important  victories, 
believe  the  emancipation  policy  and  the  aid  of  colored 
troops  constitute  the  heaviest  blows  yet  dealt  to  the 
rebellion,  and  that  at  least  one  of  those  important  suc- 
cesses could  not  have  been  achieved  when  it  was  but 
for  the  aid  of  black  soldiers.  Among  the  com- 
manders holding  these  views  are  some  who  have 
never  had  any  affinity  with  what  is  called  abolitionism 
or  with  "Republican  party  politics,"  but  who  hold 
them  purely  as  military  opinions.  I  submit  their 
opinions  as  being  entitled  to  some  weight  against  the 
objections  often  urged  that  emancipation  and  arming 
the  blacks  are  unwise  as  military  measures,  and  were 
not  adopted  as  such  in  good  faith.  You  say  that  you 
will  not  fight  to  free  negroes.  Some  of  them  seem  to 
be  willing  to  fight  for  you — but  no  matter.  Fight 
you,  then,   exclusively  to  save  the  Union.     I  issued 


LETTER   TO   J.    C.    CONKLING.  191 

the  proclamation  on  purpose  to  aid  you  in  saving  the 
Union.  Whenever  you  shall  have  conquered  all 
resistance  to  the  Union,  if  I  shall  urge  you  to  con- 
tinue fighting,  it  will  be  an  apt  time  then  for  you  to 
declare  that  you  will  not  fight  to  free  negroes.  I 
thought  that,  in  your  struggle  for  the  Union,  to  what- 
ever extent  the  negroes  should  cease  helping  the 
enemy,  to  that  extent  it  weakened  the  enemy  in  his 
resistance  to  you.  Do  you  think  differently?  I 
thought  that  whatever  negroes  can  be  got  to  do  as 
soldiers  leaves  just  so  much  less  for  white  soldiers  to 
do  in  saving  the  Union.  Does  it  appear  otherwise  to 
you?  But  negroes,  like  other  people,  act  upon 
motives.  Why  should  they  do  anything  for  us  if  we 
will  do  nothing  for  them?  If  they  stake  their  lives  for 
us  they  must  be  prompted  by  the  strongest  motive, 
even  the  promise  of  freedom.  And  the  promise,  being 
made,  must  be  kept.  The  signs  look  better.  The 
Father  of  Waters  again  goes  unvexed  to  the  sea. 
Thanks  to  the  great  Northwest  for  it.  Nor  yet  wholly 
to  them.  Three  hundred  miles  up  they  met  New 
England,  Empire,  Keystone,  and  Jersey,  hewing  their 
way  right  and  left.  The  Sunny  South,  too,  in  more 
colors  than  one,  also  lent  a  hand.  On  the  spot,  their 
part  of  the  history  was  jotted  down  in  black  and 
white.  The  job  was  a  great  national  one,  and  let 
none  be  banned  who  bore  an  honorable  part  in  it ;  and 
while  those  who  have  cleared  the  great  river  may  well 
be  proud,  even  that  is  not  all.     It  is  hard  to  say  that 


I92  LETTER    TO    J.     C.    CONKLING. 

anything  has  been  more  bravely  and  better  done  than 
at  Antietam,  Murfreesboro',  Gettysburg,  and  on  many 
fields  of  less  note.  Nor  must  Uncle  Sam's  web  feet  be 
forgotten.  At  all  the  waters'  margins  they  have  been 
present:  not  only  on  the  deep  sea,  the  broad  bay,  and 
the  rapid  river,  but  also  up  the  narrow,  muddy  bayou ; 
and  wherever  the  ground  was  a  little  damp,  they 
have  been  and  made  their  tracks.  Thanks  to  all. 
For  the  great  Republic — for  the  principles  by  which  it 
lives  and  keeps  alive — for  man's  vast  future — thanks 
to  all.  Peace  does  not  appear  so  far  distant  as  it  did. 
I  hope  it  will  come  soon,  and  come  to  stay:  and  so 
come  as  to  be  worth  the  keeping  in  all  future  time. 
It  will  then  have  been  proved  that  among  freemen 
there  can  be  no  successful  appeal  from  the  ballot  to 
the  bullet,  and  that  they  who  take  such  appeal  are 
sure  to  lose  their  case  and  pay  the  cost.  And  then 
there  will  be  some  black  men  who  can  remember  that, 
with  silent  tongue,  and  clenched  teeth,  and  steady 
eye,  and  well-poised  bayonet,  they  have  helped  man- 
kind on  to  this  great  consummation ;  while  I  fear  that 
there  will  be  some  white  men  unable  to  forget  that 
with  malignant  heart  and  deceitful  speech  they  have 
striven  to  hinder  it.  Still,  let  us  not  be  over  sanguine 
of  a  speedy  final  triumph.  Let  us  be  quite  sober. 
Let  us  diligently  apply  the  means,  never  doubting 
that  a  just  God,  in  his  own  good  time,  will  give  us  the 

rightful  result.     Yours  very  truly, 

Abraham  Lincoln. 


LETTER   TO    A,    G,    HODGES.  193 


LETTER   TO   A.  G.  HODGES. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  April  4,  1864. 
A.   G.   Hodges,  Esq.,  Frankfort,  Ky. 

My  Dear  Sir: — You  ask  me  to  put  in  writing  the 
substance  of  what  I  verbally  said  the  other  day  in 
your  presence,  to  Governor  Bramlette  and  Senator 
Dixon.     It  was  about  as  follows: 

"I  am  naturally  anti-slavery.  If  slavery  is  not 
wrong,  nothing  is  wrong.  I  cannot  remember  when 
I  did  not  so  think  and  feel,  and  yet  I  have  never 
understood  that  the  Presidency  conferred  upon  me  an 
unrestricted  right  to  act  officially  upon  this  judgment 
and  feeling.  It  was  in  the  oath  I  took  that  I  would, 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and 
defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  could 
not  take  the  office  without  taking  the  oath.  Nor  was 
it  my  view  that  I  might  take  an  oath  to  get  power, 
and  break  the  oath  in  using  the  power.  I  understood, 
too,  that  in  ordinary  civil  administration  this  oath 
even  forbade  me  to  practically  indulge  my  primary 
abstract  judgment  on  the  moral  question  of  slavery. 
I  had  publicly  declared  this  many  times,  and  in  many 
ways.  And  I  aver  that,  to  this  day,  I  have  done  no 
official  act  in  mere  deference  to  my  abstract  judgment 
and  feeling  on  slavery. 

"I  did  understand,  however,  that  my  oath  to  pre- 
serve   the   Constitution    to     the    best   of   my  ability 


194  LETTER    TO    A.     G.    HODGES. 

imposed  upon  me  the  duty  of  preserving,  by  every 
indispensable  means,  that  Government — that  Nation — 
of  which  that  Constitution  was  the  organic  law.  Was  it 
possible  to  lose  the  Nation  and  yet  preserve  the  Con- 
stitution? 

"By  general  law,  life  and  limb  must  be  protected, 
yet  often  a  limb  must  be  amputated  to  save  a  life; 
but  a  life  is  never  wisely  given  to  save  a  limb.  I  felt 
that  measures  otherwise  unconstitutional  might 
become  lawful  by  becoming  indispensable  to  the 
preservation  of  the  Constitution  through  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Nation.  Right  or  wrong,  I  assumed 
this  ground,  and  now  avow  it.  I  could  not  feel  that, 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had  even  tried  to  pre- 
serve the  Constitution  if,  to  save  slavery  or  any 
minor  matter,  I  should  permit  the  wreck  of  Govern- 
ment, Country,  and  Constitution,  all  together. 
When,  early  in  the  war,  General  Fremont  attempted 
military  emancipation,  I  forbade  it,  because  I  did  not 
then  think  it  an  indispensable  necessity.  When,  a 
little  later,  General  Cameron,  then  Secretary  of 
War,  suggested  the  arming  of  the  blacks,  I  objected 
because  I  did  not  yet  think  it  an  indispensable  neces- 
sity. When,  still  later,  General  Hunter  attempted 
military  emancipation,  I  again  forbade  it,  because  I 
did  not  yet  think  the  indispensable  necessity  had 
come. 

"When,  in  March  and  May  and  July,  1862,  I  made 
earnest  and  successive   appeals  to  the  Border  States 


LETTER    TO    A.     G.     HODGES.  I95 

to  favor  compensated  emancipation,  I  believed  the 
indispensable  necessity  for  military  emancipation  and 
arming  the  blacks  would  come  unless  averted  by  that 
measure.  They  declined  the  proposition,  and  I  was, 
in  my  best  judgment,  driven  to  the  alternative  of 
either  surrendering  the  Union,  and  with  it  the  Con- 
stitution, or  of  laying  strong  hand  upon  the  colored 
element.  I  chose  the  latter.  In  choosing  it,  I  hoped 
for  greater  gain  than  loss;  but  of  this  I  was  not 
entirely  confident.  More  than  a  year  of  trial  now 
shows  no  loss  by  it  in  our  foreign  relations,  none  in 
our  home  popular  sentiment,  none  in  our  white  mili- 
tary force — no  loss  by  it  anyhow  or  anywhere.  On 
the  contrary,  it  shows  a  gain  of  quite  a  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers. 
These  are  palpable  facts,  about  which,  as  facts,  there 
can  be  no  caviling.  We  have  the  men ;  and  we  could 
not  have  had  them  without  the  measure. 

"And  now  let  any  Union  man  who  complains  of  the 
measure  test  himself  by  writing  down  in  one  line  that 
he  is  for  subduing  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms ;  and 
in  the  next,  that  he  is  for  taking  these  one  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  men  from  the  Union  side,  and  placing 
them  where  they  would  be  but  for  the  measure  he 
condemns.  If  he  cannot  face  his  cause  so  stated,  it  is 
only  because  he  cannot  face  the  truth." 

I  add  a  word  which  was  not  in  the  verbal  conversa- 
tion.    In  telling  this  tale  I  attempt  no  compliment  to 

my   own   sagacity,      I    claim   not   to   have   controlled 

/ 


; 


Iq6  AN    ENGLISH    ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN. 

events,  but  confess  plainly  that  events  have  controlled 
me.  Now,  at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the 
Nation's  condition  is  not  what  either  party,  or  any 
man  devised  or  expected.  God  alone  can  claim  it. 
Whither  it  is  tending  seems  plain.  If  God  now  wills 
the  removal  of  a  great  wrong,  and  wills  also  that  we 
of  the  North,  as  well  as  you  of  the  South,  shall  pay 
fairly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial  his- 
tory will  find  therein  new  cause  to  attest  and  revere 

the  justice  and  goodness  of  God.       Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 


AN    ENGLISH    ESTIMATE   OF   LINCOLN. 

It  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  Lincoln's  claims  to 
admiration  that,  though  he  sympathized  with  the 
fervor  and  enthusiasm  of  his  countrymen,  he  was  not 
carried  away  by  it.  He  was  one  of  those  rare  men 
who  can  at  once  be  zealous  and  moderate,  who  are 
kindled  by  great  ideas,  and  who  yet  retain  complete 
control  of  the  critical  faculty.  And  more  than  this, 
Lincoln  was  a  man  who  could  be  reserved  without  the 
chill  of  reserve.  Again,  he  could  make  allowance  for 
demerits  in  a  principle  or  a  human  instrument  with- 
out ever  falling  into  the  purblindness  of  cynicism. 
He  often  acted  in  his  dealings  with  men  much  as  a 
professed  cynic  might  have  acted;  but  his  conduct  was 
due,  not  to  any  disbelief  in  virtue,  but  to  a  wide  toler- 


AN    ENGLISH    ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN.  197 

ance  and  a  clear  knowledge  of  human  nature.  He 
saw  things  as  a  disillusionized  man  sees  them,  and 
yet  in  the  bad  sense  he  never  suffered  any  disillusion- 
ment. For  suffusing  and  combining  his  other  quali- 
ties was  a  serenity  of  mind  which  affected  the  whole 
man.  He  viewed  the  world  too  much  as  a  whole  to 
be  greatly  troubled  or  perplexed  over  its  accidents. 
To  this  serenity  of  mind  was  due  an  almost  total 
absence  of  indignation  in  the  ordinary  sense.  Gen- 
erals might  half-ruin  the  cause  for  the  sake  of  some 
trumpery  quarrel,  or  in  order  to  gain  some  petty  per- 
sonal advantage ;  office-seekers  might  worry  at  the  very 
crisis  of  the  nation's  fate;  but  none  of  the  pettinesses, 
the  spites,  or  the  follies  could  rouse  in  Lincoln  the 
impatience  or  the  indignation  that  would  have  been 
wakened  in  ordinary  men.  Pity,  and  nothing  else, 
was  the  feeling  such  exhibitions  occasioned  him. 
Lincoln  seems  to  have  felt  the  excuse  that  tempers 
the  guilt  of  every  mortal  transgression.  His  large- 
ness and  tenderness  of  nature  made  him  at  heart  a 
universal  apologist.  He  was,  of  course,  too  practical 
and  too  great  a  statesman  to  let  this  sensibility  to  the 
excuses  that  can  be  made  for  human  conduct  induce 
him  to  allow  misdeeds  to  go  unpunished  or  uncor- 
rected. He  acted  as  firmly  and  as  severely  as  if  he 
had  experienced  the  most  burning  indignation;  but 
the  moment  we  come  to  Lincoln's  real  feelings,  we  see 
that  he  was  never  incensed,  and  that,  even  in  its  most 
legitimate   form,  the   desire  for  retribution  is  absent 


t 


I98  AN    ENGLISH    ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN. 

from  his  mind.  "To  know  all  is  to  forgive  all,"  was 
the  secret  of  his  attitude  towards  human  affairs. 
That  is  not  the  highest  wisdom;  but  it  errs  on  the 
right,  and  also  on  the  rare,  side. 

So  much  for  the  intellectual  side  of  Lincoln's 
nature.  Behind  it  was  a  personality  of  singular 
charm.  Tenderness  and  humor  were  its  main  char- 
acteristics. As  he  rode  through  a  forest  in  spring- 
time, he  would  keep  on  dismounting  to  put  back  the 
young  birds  that  had  fallen  from  their  nests.  There 
was  not  a  situation  in  life  which  could  not  afford  him 
the  subject  for  a  kindly  smile.  It  needed  a  character 
so  full  of  gentleness  and  good  temper  to  sustain  the 
intolerable  weight  of  responsibility  which  the  war 
threw  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  President.  Most 
men  would  have  been  crushed  by  the  burden.  His 
serenity  of  temper  saved  Lincoln.  Except  when  the 
miserable  necessity  of  having  to  sign  the  order  for  a 
military  execution  took  away  his  sleep,  he  carried  on 
his  work  without  any  visible  sign  of  over-strain.  Not 
the  least  of  Lincoln's  achievements  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  though  for  four  years  he  wielded  a 
power  and  a  personal  authority  greater  than  that 
exercised  by  any  monarch  on  earth,  he  never  gave 
satirist  or  caricaturist  the  slightest  real  ground  for 
declaring  that  his  sudden  rise  to  world-wide  fame 
had  turned  the  head  of  the  backwoodsman.  Under 
the  circumstances  there  would  have  been  every  excuse 
for  Lincoln  had  he  assumed  to  his  subordinates  some- 


AN    ENGLISH    ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN.  199 

what  of  the  bearing  of  the  autocrat  he  was.  It  is  a 
sign  of  the  absolute  sincerity  and  good  sense  of  the 
President  that  he  was  under  no  sort  of  a  temptation 
to  do  so.  Lincoln  was  before  all  things  a  gentleman, 
and  the  good  taste  inseparable  from  that  character 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  be  spoiled  by  power  and 
position.  This  grace  and  strength  of  character  is 
never  better  shown  than  in  the  letters  to  his  generals, 
victorious  or  defeated.  When  they  were  beaten,  he 
was  anxious  to  share  the  blame;  when  victorious  he 
was  instant  to  deny  by  anticipation  any  rumor  that  he 
had  inspired  the  strategy  of  the  campaign.  If  a 
general  had  to  be  reprimanded  he  did  it  as  only  the 
most  perfect  of  gentlemen  could  do  it.  He  could 
convey  the  severest  censure  without  inflicting  any 
wound  that  would  not  heal,  and  this  not  by  using 
roundabout  expressions,  but  in  the  plainest  language. 
"He  writes  me  like  a  father, "  were  the  heart-felt  words 
of  a  commander  who  had  been  reproved  by  the  Presi- 
dent. Throughout  these  communications,  the  manner 
in  which  he  not  only  conceals  but  altogether  sinks  all 
sense  that  the  men  to  whom  they  are  addressed 
were,  in  effect,  his  subordinates,  is  worthy  of  special 
note.  "A  breath  could  make  them,  as  a  breath  had 
made, ' '  and  yet  Lincoln  writes  as  if  his  generals  were 
absolutely  independent. 

We  have  said  something  of  Lincoln  as  a  man  and 
as  the  leader  of  a  great  cause.  We  desire  now  to 
dwell  upon  a  point  which  is  often  neglected  in  con- 


200  AN    ENGLISH    ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN. 

sidering  the  career  of  the  hero  of  the  Union,  but 
which,  from  the  point  of  view  of  letters,  is  of  absorb- 
ing interest.  No  criticism  of  Mr.  Lincoln  can  be  in 
any  sense  adequate  which  does  not  deal  with  his 
astonishing  power  over  words.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  of  him  that  he  is  among  the  greatest  masters  of 
prose  ever  produced  by  the  English  race.  Self-edu- 
cated,  or  rather  not  educated  at  all  in  the  ordinary 
sense,  as  he  was,  he  contrived  to  obtain  an  insight 
and  power  in  the  handling  of  the  mechanism  of  letters 
such  as  has  been  given  to  few  men  in  his,  or,  indeed, 
in  any  age.  That  the  gift  of  oratory  should  be  a 
natural  gift,  is  understandable  enough,  for  the 
methods  of  the  orator,  like  those  of  the  poet,  are 
primarily  sensuous,  and  may  well  be  instinctive. 
Mr.  Lincoln's  achievement  seems  to  show  that  no  less 
is  the  writing  of  prose  an  endowment  of  Nature.  Mr. 
Lincoln  did  not  get  his  ability  to  handle  prose  through 
his  gift  of  speech.  That  these  are  separate,  though 
coordinate,  faculties  is  a  matter  beyond  dispute,  for 
many  of  the  great  orators  of  the  world  have  proved 
themselves  exceedingly  inefficient  in  the  matter  of 
deliberate  composition.  Mr.  Lincoln  enjoyed  both 
gifts.  His  letters,  dispatches,  memoranda,  and 
written  addresses  are  even  better  than  his  speeches; 
and  in  speaking  thus  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  prose,  we  are 
not  thinking  merely  of  certain  pieces  of  inspired 
rhetoric.  We  do  not  praise  his  work  because,  like 
Mr.   Bright,   he  could  exercise  his  power  of  coining 


AN    ENGLISH    ESTIMATE    OF    LINCOLN.  201 

illuminating  phrases  as  effectively  upon  paper  as  on 
the  platform.  It  is  in  his  conduct  of  the  pedestrian 
portions  of  composition  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  genius  for 
prose  style  is  exhibited.  Mr.  Bright's  writing  cannot 
claim  to  answer  the  description  which  Hazlitt  has 
given  of  the  successful  prose-writer's  performance. 
Mr.  Lincoln's  can.  What  Hazlitt  says  is  complete 
and  perfect  in  definition.  He  tells  us  that  the  prose- 
writer  so  uses  his  pen  "that  he  loses  no  particle  of 
the  exact  characteristic  extreme  impression  of  the 
thing  he  writes  about"  ;  and  with  equal  significance 
he  points  out  that  "the  prose- writer  is  master  of  his 
materials,"  as  "the  poet  is  the  slave  of  his  style."  If 
these  words  convey  a  true  definition,  then  Mr.  Lin- 
coln is  a  master  of  prose.  Whatever  the  subject  he 
has  in  hand,  whether  it  be  bold  or  impassioned, 
business-like  or  pathetic,  we  feel  that  we  "lose  no 
particle  of  the  exact  characteristic  extreme  impres- 
sion" of  the  thing  written  about.  We  have  it  all,  and 
not  merely  a  part.  Every  line  shows  that  the  writer 
is  master  of  his  materials ;  that  he  guides  the  words, 
never  the  words  him.  This  is,  indeed,  the  predomi- 
nant note  throughout  all  Mr.  Lincoln's  work.  We 
feel  that  he  is  like  the  engineer  who  controls  some 
mighty  reservoir.  As  he  desires,  he  opens  the  various 
sluice-gates,  but  for  no  instant  is  the  water  not  under 
his  entire  control.  We  are  sensible  in  reading  Mr. 
Lincoln's  writings,  that  an  immense  force  is  gathered 
up  behind  him,  and  that  in  each  jet  that  flows  every 


202  LETTER    TO    GEN.     G.     B.     McCLELLAN. 

drop  is  meant.  Some  writers  only  leak;  others  half 
now  through  determined  channels,  half  leak  away 
their  words  like  a  broken  lock  when  it  is  emptying. 
The  greatest,  like  Mr.  Lincoln,  send  out  none  but 
clear-shaped  streams. 

— Lo7ido7i  Spectator,  April  25  and  May  5,  1891. 


LETTER    TO    GEN.   G.   B.   McCLELLAN. 

Washington,  April  9,  1862. 
Major-General  McClellan. 

My  Dear  Sir: — Your  dispatches,  complaining  that 
you  are  not  properly  sustained,  while  they  do  not 
offend  me,  do  pain  me  very  much. 

Blenker's  division  was  withdrawn  from  you  before 
you  left  here,  and  you  know  the  pressure  under  which 
I  did  it,  and,  as  I  thought,  acquiesced  in  it — certainly 
not  without  reluctance. 

After  you  left  I  ascertained  that  less  than  twenty 
thousand  unorganized  men,  without  a  single  field 
battery,  were  all  you  designed  to  be  left  for  the 
defense  of  Washington  and  Manassas  Junction,  and 
part  of  this  even  was  to  go  to  General  Hooker's  old 
position;  General  Banks'  corps,  once  designated  for 
Manassas  Junction,   was    divided  and  tied  up  on  the 


Note. — General  McClellan  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  July  25,  1861 ;  was  commander-in-chief  of 
all  the  armies  of  the  U.  S.  Nov.  1,  1861-March  n,  1862.  Con- 
ducted the  Peninsular  campaign  March  to  July,  1862,  and  was 
superseded  by  Burnside  Nov.  7,1862. 


LETTER    TO    GEN.     G.     B.     McCLELLAN.  203 

line  of  Winchester  and  Strasburgh,  and  could  not 
leave  it  without  again  exposing  the  Upper  Potomac 
and  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad.  This  presented 
— or  would  present,  when  McDowell  and  Sumner 
should  be  gone — a  great  temptation  to  the  enemy  to 
turn  back  from  the  Rappahannock  and  sack  Washing- 
ton. My  explicit  order  that  Washington  should,  by 
the  judgment  of  all  the  commanders  of  corps,  be  left 
entirely  secure,  had  been  neglected.  It  was  precisely 
this  that  drove  me  to  detain  McDowell. 

I  do  not  forget  that  I  was  satisfied  with  your 
arrangement  to  leave  Banks  at  Manassas  Junction; 
but  when  that  arrangement  was  broken  up  and  noth- 
ing was  substituted  for  it,  of  course  I  was  not  satis- 
fied, but  I  was  constrained  to  substitute  something 
for  it  myself. 

And  now  allow  me  to  ask,  do  you  really  think  I 
should  permit  the  line  from  Richmond  via  Manassas 
Junction  to  this  city  to  be  entirely  open,  except  what 
resistance  could  be  presented  by  less  than  twenty 
thousand  unorganized  troops?  This  is  a  question 
which  the  country  will  not  allow  me  to  evade. 

There  is  a  curious  mystery  about  the  number  of 
troops  now  with  you.  When  I  telegraphed  you  on  the 
6th,  saying  you  had  over  a  hundred  thousand  with 
you,  I  had  just  obtained  from  the  Secretary  of  War  a 
statement,  taken  as  he  said  from  your  own  returns, 
making  one  hundred  and  eight  thousand  then  with 
you  and  en  route  to  you.     You  now  say  you  will  have 


204  LETTER    TO    GEN.     G.     B.     McCLELLAN. 

but  eighty-five  thousand  when  all  en  route  to  you  shall 
have  reached  you.  How  can  this  discrepancy  of  twenty- 
three  thousand  be  accounted  for? 

As  to  General  Wool's  command,  I  understand  it  is 
doing  for  you  precisely  what  a  like  number  of  your 
own  would  have  to  do  if  that  command  was  away.  I 
suppose  the  whole  force  which  has  gone  forward  to 
you  is  with  you  by  this  time ;  and  if  so,  I  think  it  is 
the  precise  time  for  you  to  strike  a  blow.  By  delay 
the  enemy  will  relatively  gain  upon  you — that  is,  he 
will  gain  faster  by  fortifications  and  reinforcement 
than  you  can  by  reinforcements  alone. 

And  once  more  let  me  tell  you,  it  is  indispensable  to 
you  that  you  strike  a  blow.  I  am  powerless  to  help 
this.  You  will  do  me  the  justice  to  remember  I 
always  insisted  that  going  down  the  bay  in  search  of  a 
field,  instead  of  fighting  at  or  near  Manassas,  was  only 
shifting  and  not  surmounting  a  difficulty;  that  we 
would  find  the  same  enemy  and  the  same  or  equal 
intrenchments  at  either  place.  The  country  will  not 
fail  to  note — is  noting  now — that  the  present  hesita- 
tion to  move  upon  an  intrenched  enemy  is  but  the 
story  of  Manassas  repeated. 

I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  have  never  written  you 
or  spoken  to  you  in  greater  kindness  of  feeling  than 
now,  nor  with  a  fuller  purpose  to  sustain  you,  so  far 
as  in  my  most  anxious  judgment  I  consistently  can ; 
but  you  must  act.     Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 


LETTER    TO    GEN,     G.    B.    McCLELLAN.  205 


LETTER    TO    GEN.  G.   B.   McCLELLAN. 

Fort  Monroe,  Va.,  May  9,  1862. 
Major-General  McClellan. 

My  Dear  Sir: — I  have  just  assisted  the  Secretary  of 
War  in  framing  part  of  a  dispatch  to  you  relating  to 
army  corps,  which  dispatch,  of  course,  will  have 
reached  you  long  before  this  will.  I  wish  to  say 
a  few  words  to  you  privately  on  this  subject.  I 
ordered  the  army  corps  organization  not  only  on 
the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  twelve  generals 
whom  you  had  selected  and  assigned  as  generals 
of  division,  but  also  on  the  unanimous  opinion  of 
every  military  man  I  could  get  an  opinion  from — and 
every  modern  military  book, — yourself  only  excepted. 
Of  course  I  did  not  on  my  own  judgment  pretend  to 
understand  the  subject.  I  now  think  it  indispensable 
for  you  to  know  how  your  struggle  against  it  is 
received  in  quarters  which  we  cannot  entirely  disre- 
gard. It  is  looked  upon  as  merely  an  effort  to  pamper 
one  or  two  pets,  and  to  persecute  and  degrade  their 
supposed  rivals.  I  have  had  no  word  from  Sumner, 
Heintzelman,  or  Keyes.  The  commanders  of  these 
corps  are  of  course  the  three  highest  officers  with 
you,  but  I  am  constantly  told  that  you  have  no  consul- 
tation or  communication  with  them ;  that  you  consult 
and  communicate  with  nobody  but  Gen.  Fitz-John 
Porter  and  perhaps  General  Franklin.     I  do  not  say 


206  LETTER    TO    GEN.     G.     B.     McCLELLAN. 

these  complaints  are  true  or  just;  but  at  all  events  it 
is  proper  you  should  know  of  their  existence.  Do  the 
commanders  of  corps  disobey  your  orders  in  anything? 

When  you  relieved  General  Hamilton  of  his  com- 
mand the  other  day,  you  thereby  lost  the  confidence 
of  at  least  one  of  your  best  friends  in  the  Senate.  And 
here  let  me  say,  not  as  applicable  to  you  personally, 
that  senators  and  representatives  speak  of  me  in  their 
places  as  they  please  without  question,  and  that  offi- 
cers of  the  army  must  cease  addressing  insulting  let- 
ters to  them  for  taking  no  greater  liberty  with  them. 

But  to  return.  Are  you  strong  enough,  even  with 
my  help,  to  set  your  foot  upon  the  necks  of  Sumner, 
Heintzelman,  and  Keyes  all  at  once?  This  is  a  prac- 
tical and  very  serious  question  for  you. 

The  success  of  your  army  and  the  cause  of  the 
country  are  the  same,  and  of  course  I  only  desire  the 
good  of  the  cause.     Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 


LETTER   TO    GEN.  G.  B.  McCLELLAN. 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  D.  C,  Oct.  13,  1862. 
Major-General  McClellan. 

My  Dear  Sir: — You  remember  my  speaking  to  you 
of  what  I  called  your  over-cautiousness.  Are  you  not 
over-cautious  when  you  assume  that  you  cannot  do 
what  the  enemy  is  constantly  doing?     Should  you  not 


LETTER    TO    GEN.     G.     B.     McCLELLAN.  207 

claim  to  be  at  least  his  equal  in  prowess,  and  act  upon 
the  claim? 

As  I  understand,  you  telegraphed  General  Hal- 
leck  that  you  cannot  subsist  your  army  at  Win- 
chester unless  the  railroad  from  Harper's  Ferry 
to  that  point  be  put  in  working  order.  But  the 
enemy  does  now  subsist  his  army  at  Winchester,  at 
a  distance  nearly  twice  as  great  from  railroad  trans- 
portation as  you  would  have  to  do,  without  the  rail- 
road last  named.  He  now  wagons  from  Culpeper 
Court  House,  which  is  just  about  twice  as  far  as  you 
would  have  to  do  from  Harper's  Ferry.  He  is 
certainly  not  more  than  half  as  well  provided  with 
wagons  as  you  are.  I  certainly  should  be  pleased  for 
you  to  have  the  advantage  of  the  railroad  from 
Harper's  Ferry  to  Winchester;  but  it  wastes  all  the 
remainder  of  autumn  to  give  it  to  you,  and,  in  fact, 
ignores  the  question  of  time,  which  cannot  and  must 
not  be  ignored. 

Again,  one  of  the  standard  maxims  of  war,  as 
you  know,  is,  "to  operate  upon  the  enemy's  com- 
munications as  much  as  possible  without  exposing 
your  own."  You  seem  to  act  as  if  this  applies 
against  you,  but  cannot  apply  in  your  favor.  Change 
positions  with  the  enemy,  and  think  you  not  he 
would  break  your  communication  with  Richmond 
within  the  next  twenty-four  hours?  You  dread  his 
going  into  Pennsylvania;  but,  if  he  does  so  in  full 
force,  he  gives  up  his  communications  to  you  abso- 


208  LETTER    TO    GEN.     G.     B.     McCLELLAN. 

lutely,  and  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  follow  and 
ruin  him.  If  he  does  so  with  less  than  full  force,  fall 
upon   and    beat   what   is   left   behind   all   the   easier. 

Exclusive  of  the  water-line,  you  are  now  nearer  Rich- 
mond than  the  enemy  is  by  the  route  that  you  can 
and  he  must  take.  Why  can  you  not  reach  there 
before  him,  unless  you  admit  that  he  is  more  than 
your  equal  on  a  march?  His  route  is  the  arc  of  a 
circle,  while  yours  is  the  chord.  The  roads  are  as 
good  on  yours  as  on  his. 

You  know  I  desired,  but  did  not  order,  you 
to  cross  the  Potomac  below,  instead  of  above, 
the  Shenandoah  and  Blue  Ridge.  My  idea  was 
that  this  would  at  once  menace  the  enemy's  com- 
munications, which  I  would  seize  if  he  would  permit. 
If  he  should  move  northward,  I  would  follow  him 
closely,  holding  his  communications.  If  he  should 
prevent  our  seizing  his  communications  and  move 
toward  Richmond,  I  would  press  closely  to  him,  fight 
him  if  a  favorable  opportunity  should  present,  and 
at  least  try  to  beat  him  to  Richmond  on  the  inside 
track.  I  say  "try";  if  we  never  try  we  shall  never 
succeed.  If  he  makes  a  stand  at  Winchester,  mov- 
ing neither  north  nor  south,  I  would  fight  him 
there,  on  the  idea  that,  if  we  cannot  beat  him  when 
he  bears  the  wastage  of  coming  to  us,  we  never  can 
when  we  bear  the  wastage  of  going  to  him.  This 
proposition  is  a  simple  truth,  and  is  too  important 
to  be  lost  sight  of  for  a  moment.     In  coming  to  us 


LETTER    TO    GEN.     G.     B.    McCLELLAN.  209 

he  tenders  us  an  advantage  which  we  should  not 
waive.  We  should  not  so  operate  as  to  merely  drive 
him  away.  As  we  must  beat  him  somewhere  or  fail 
finally,  we  can  do  it,  if  at  all,  easier  near  to  us  than 
far  away.  If  we  cannot  beat  the  enemy  where  he 
now  is,  we  never  can,  he  again  being  within  the 
intrenchments  of  Richmond.  Recurring  to  the  idea  of 
going  to  Richmond  on  the  inside  track,  the  facility  of 
supplying  from  the  side  away  from  the  enemy  is  re- 
markable; as  it  were,  by  the  different  spokes  of  a 
wheel  extending  from  the  hub  toward  the  rim;  and 
this  whether  you  move  directly  by  the  chord  or  on  the 
inside  arc,  hugging  the  Blue  Ridge  more  closely.  The 
chord-line,  as  you  see,  carries  you  by  Aldie,  Hay  Mar- 
ket, and  Fredericksburg,  and  you  see  how  turnpikes, 
railroads,  and  finally  the  Potomac,  by  Aquia  Creek, 
meet  you  at  all  points  from  Washington.  The  same, 
only  the  lines  lengthened  a  little,  if  you  press  closer  to 
the  Blue  Ridge  part  of  the  way. 

The  gaps  through  the  Blue  Ridge  I  understand  to 
be  about  the  following  distances  from  Harper's 
Ferry,  to  wit:  Vestal's,  5  miles;  Gregory's,  13; 
Snicker's,  18;  Ashby's,  28;  Manassas,  38;  Chester, 
45;  and  Thornton's,  53.  I  should  think  it  preferable 
to  take  the  route  nearest  the  enemy,  disabling  him  to 
make  an  important  move  without  your  knowledge, 
and  compelling  him  to  keep  his  forces  together  for 
dread  of  you.  The  gaps  would  enable  you  to  attack 
if  you  should  wish.     For  a  great  part  of  the  way  you 


210  LETTER    TO    GENERAL    SCHOFIELD. 

would   be  practically  between    the   enemy   and   both 

Washington  and  Richmond,  enabling  us  to  spare  you 

the  greatest  number  of  troops  from  here.     When,  at 

length,  running  for  Richmond  ahead  of  him  enables 

him  to  move  this  way,  if  he  does  so,  turn  and  attack 

him  in  the  rear.     But  I  think  he  should  be  engaged 

long  before  such  point  is  reached.     It  is  all  easy  if 

our   troops   march   as   well   as  the    enemy,   and  it  is 

unmanly  to  say  they  cannot  do  it.     This  letter  is  in 

no  sense  an  order.     Yours  truly, 

A,  Lincoln. 


LETTER   TO    GENERAL    SCHOFIELD, 

{Relative  to  the  removal  of  General  Curtis.) 
Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  May  27,  1863. 
Gen.  J.  M.  Schofield. 

Dear  Sir: — Having  removed  General  Curtis  and 
assigned  you  to  the  command  of  the  Department  of 
the  Missouri,  I  think  it  may  be  of  some  advantage  to 
me  to  state  to  you  why  I  did  it.  I  did  not  remove 
General  Curtis  because  of  my  full  conviction  that  he 
had  done  wrong  by  commission  or  omission.  I  did  it 
because  of  a  conviction  in  my  mind  that  the  Union 
men  of  Missouri,  constituting,  when  united,  a  vast 
majority  of  the  people,  have  entered  into  a  pestilent, 
factious  quarrel  among  themselves,  General  Curtis, 
perhaps  not  of  choice,  being  the  head  of  one  faction, 
and    Governor    Gamble    that    of    the    other.      After 


LETTER    TO    GEN.     U.     S.     GRANT.  211 

months  of  labor  to  reconcile  the  difficulty,  it  seemed 
to  grow  worse  and  worse,  until  I  felt  it  my  duty  to 
break  it  up  somehow,  and  as  I  could  not  remove  Gov. 
Gamble,  I  had  to  remove  General  Curtis.  Now  that 
you  are  in  the  position,  I  wish  you  to  undo  nothing 
merely  because  General  Curtis  or  Governor  Gamble 
did  it,  but  to  exercise  your  own  judgment,  and  do 
right  for  the  public  interest.  Let  your  military  meas- 
ures be  strong  enough  to  repel  the  invaders  and  keep 
the  peace,  and  not  so  strong  as  to  unnecessarily  harass 
and  persecute  the  people.  It  is  a  difficult  role,  and  so 
much  more  will  be  the  honor  if  you  perform  it  well. 
If  both  factions,  or  neither,  shall  abuse  you,  you  will 
probably  be  about  right.  Beware  of  being  assailed  by 
one  and  praised  by  the  other.     Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 


LETTER   TO   GEN.  U.   S.  GRANT. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  July  13,  1863. 
Maj.-Gen.   U.   S.   Grant. 

My  Dear  General: — I  do  not  remember  that  you  and 
I  ever  met  personally.  I  write  this  now  as  a  grateful 
acknowledgment  for  the  almost  inestimable  service 
you   have  done   the  country. 

I  wish  to  say  a  word  further.  When  you  first 
reached  the  vicinity  of  Vicksburg,  I  thought  you 
should   do    what   you    finally  did — march    the    troops 


212  LETTER    TO    GEN.     U.     S.     GRANT. 

across  the  neck,  run  the  batteries  with  the  transports, 
and  thus  go  below;  and  I  never  had  any  faith,  ex- 
cept a  general  hope  that  you  knew  better  than  I,  that 
the  Yazoo  Pass  expedition  and  the  like  could  succeed. 
When  you  got  below  and  took  Port  Gibson,  Grand 
Gulf,  and  vicinity,  I  thought  you  should  go  down 
the  river  and  join  General  Banks,  and  when  you 
turned  northward,  east  of  the  Big  Black,  I  feared  it 
was  a  mistake.  I  now  wish  to  make  the  personal 
acknowledgment  that  you  were  right  and  I  was  wrong. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 


LETTER   TO   GEN.  U.  S.  GRANT. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  April  30,  1864. 

Lieutenant- General  Grant:  —  Not  expecting  to 
see  you  before  the  spring  campaign  opens,  I  wish 
to  express  in  this  way  my  entire  satisfaction  with 
what  you  have  done  up  to  this  time,  so  far  as  I 
understand  it.  The  particulars  of  your  plans  I 
neither  know  nor  seek  to  know.  You  are  vigilant 
and  self-reliant;  and,  pleased  with  this,  I  wish 
not  to  obtrude  any  restraints  or  constraints  upon 
you.     While   I   am   very  anxious  that  any  great   dis- 


Note. — General  Grant  was  made  commander  of  the  district  of 
West  Tennessee  March,  1862 ;  of  the  Dept.  of  the  Tennessee  in 
Oct.,  1862  ;  of  the  Division  of  the  Mississippi  Oct. ,  1863  ;  Lieutenant- 
General,  March  2,  1864,  and  commander  of  all  the  American 
Armies,  March  12,  1864. 


ORDER    FOR    SABBATH    OBSERVANCE.'  213 

aster  or    capture    of   our  men   in  great  number  shall 

be   avoided,    I   know    these  points  are   less   likely  to 

escape  your  attention  than  they  would  be  mine. 

If  there  be  anything  wanting  which  is  in  my  power 

to  give,  do  not  fail  to  let  me  know  it.     And  now,  with 

a  brave  army  and  a  just  cause,  may  God  sustain  you. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 


\ 


ORDER   FOR   SABBATH    OBSERVANCE. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  Nov.  16,  1862. 

The  President,  commander-in-chief  of  the  army 
and  navy,  desires  and  enjoins  the  orderly  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  by  the  officers  and  men  in  the  mil- 
itary and  naval  service.  The  importance  for  man  and 
beast  of  the  prescribed  weekly  rest,  the  sacred  rights 
of  Christian  soldiers  and  sailors,  a  becoming  deference 
to  the  best  sentiment  of  a  Christian  people,  and  a  due 
regard  for  the  Divine  will,  demand  that  Sunday  labor 
in  the  army  and  navy  be  reduced  to  the  measure  of 
strict  necessity. 

The  discipline  and  character  of  the  national  forces 
should  not  suffer,  nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  im- 
periled, by  the  profanation  of  the  day  or  name  of  the 
Most  High.  "At  this  time  of  public  distress"  (adopt- 
ing the  words  of  Washington  in  1776,)  "men  may  find 
enough  to  do  in  the  service  of  God  and  their  country 
without  abandoning  themselves  to  vice  and  immor- 
ality. " 


214  '  OUR    GOOD    PRESIDENT. 

The  first  general  order  issued  by  the  Father  of  his 
Country  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence  indi- 
cates the  spirit  in  which  our  institutions  were  founded 
and  should  ever  be  defended : 

"The  general  hopes  and  trusts  that  every  officer  and  man  will 
endeavor  to  live  and  act  as  becomes  a  Christian  soldier  defending 
the  dearest  rights  and  liberties  of  his  country." 

Abraham  Lincoln. 


OUR   GOOD   PRESIDENT. 

Our  sun  hath  gone  down  at  the  noon-day, 

The  heavens  are  black ; 
And  over  the  morning,  the  shadows 

Of  night-time  are  back. 

Stop  the  proud  boasting  mouth  of  the  cannon ; 

Hush  the  mirth  and  the  shout ; — 
God  is  God!  and  the  ways  of  Jehovah 

Are  past  finding  out. 

Lo!  the  beautiful  feet  on  the  mountains, 

That  yesterday  stood, 
The  white  feet  that  came  with  glad  tidings 

Are  dabbled  in  blood. 

The  Nation  that  firmly  was  settling 

The  crown  on  her  head, 
Sits  like  Rizpah,  in  sackcloth  and  ashes, 

And  watches  her  dead. 


OUR    GOOD    PRESIDENT.  215 

Who  is  dead?  who,  unmoved  by  our  wailing, 

Is  lying-  so  low? 
O  my  Land,  stricken  dumb  in  your  anguish, 

Do  you  feel,  do  you  know, 

That  the  hand  which  reached  out  of  the  darkness 

Hath  taken  the  whole ; 
Yea,  the  arm  and  the  head  of  the  people, — 

The  heart  and  the  soul? 

And  that  heart,  o'er  whose  dread  awful  silence 

A  nation  has  wept ; 
Was  the  truest,  and  gentlest,  and  sweetest, 

A  man  ever  kept. 

Why,  he  heard  from  the  dungeons,  the  rice-fields, 

The  dark  holds  of  ships, 
Every  faint,  feeble  cry  which  oppression 

Smothered  down  on  men's  lips. 

In  her  furnace,  the  centuries  had  welded 

Their  fetter  and  chain ; 
And  like  withes,  in  the  hands  of  his  purpose, 

He  snapped  them  in  twain. 

Who  can  be  what  he  was  to  the  people, — 

What  he  was  to  the  State? 
Shall  the  ages  bring  to  us  another 

As  good  and  as  great? 

Our  hearts  with  their  anguish  are  broken, 
Our  wet  eyes  are  dim; 


2l6  TRIBUTE    TO    PRESIDENT    LINCOLN. 

For  us  is  the  loss  and  the  sorrow, 
The  triumph  for  him ! 

For,  ere  this,  face  to  face  with  his  Father 

Our  martyr  hath  stood ; 
Giving  into  his  hand  a  white  record, 

With  its  great  seal  of  blood ! 


Phcebe  Cary. 


TRIBUTE   TO    PRESIDENT    LINCOLN. 

In  the  hour  of  his  great  work  done,  President  Lincoln 
has  fallen.  Not,  indeed,  in  the  flush  of  triumph,  for  no 
thought  of  triumph  was  in  that  honest  and  humble 
heart,  nor  in  the  intoxication  of  applause,  for  the 
fruits  of  victory  were  not  yet  gathered  in  his  hand, 
was  the  Chief  of  the  American  people,  the  foremost 
man  in  the  great  Christian  revolution  of  our  age, 
struck  down.  But  his  task  was,  nevertheless,  accom- 
plished, and  the  battle  of  his  life  was  won.  So  he 
passes  away  from  the  heat  and  the  toil  that  still  have 
to  be  endured,  full  of  the  honor  that  belongs  to  one 
who  has  nobly  done  his  part,  and  carrying  in  his  last 
thoughts  the  sense  of  deep,  steadfast  thankfulness 
that  he  now  could  see  the  assured  coming  of  that  end 
for  which  he  had  so  long  striven  in  faith  and  hope. 
In  all  time  to  come,  not  among  Americans 
only,  but  among  all  who  think  of  manhood  as  more 
than  rank,  and  set  worth  above  display,  the  name  of 


TRIBUTE    TO    PRESIDENT    LINCOLN.  217 

Abraham  Lincoln  will  be  held  in  reverence.  Rising 
from  among  the  poorest  of  the  people,  winning  his 
slow  way  upward  by  sheer  hard  work,  preserving  in 
every  successive  stage  a  character  unspotted  and  a 
name  untainted,  securing  a  wider  respect  as  he 
became  better  known,  never  pretending  to  more 
than  he  was,  nor  being  less  than  he  professed  himself, 
he  was  at  length,  for  very  singleness  of  heart  and 
uprightness  of  conduct,  because  all  felt  that  they 
could  trust  him  utterly,  and  would  desire  to  be  guided 
by  his  firmness,  courage,  and  sense,  placed  in  the 
chair  of  President  at  the  turning-point  of  his  nation's 
history.  A  life  so  true,  rewarded  by  a  dignity  so 
majestic,  was  defense  enough  against  the  petty  shafts 
of  malice  which  party  spirit,  violent  enough  to  light 
a  civil  war,  aimed  against  him.  The  lowly  callings 
he  had  first  pursued,  became  his  titles  to  greater 
respect  among  those  whose  respect  was  worth  having ; 
the  little  external  rusticities  only  showed  more 
brightly,  as  the  rough  matrix  the  golden  ore,  the 
true  dignity  of  his  nature.  Never  was  any  one,  set 
in  such  high  place,  and  surrounded  with  so  many 
motives  of  furious  detraction,  so  little  impeached  of 
aught  blameworthy.  The  bitterest  enemy  could  find 
no  more  to  lay  to  his  charge  than  that  his  language 
was  sometimes  too  homely  for  a  supersensitive 
taste,  or  that  he  conveyed  in  a  jesting  phrase  what 
they  deemed  more  suited  for  a  statelier  style.  But 
against  these  specks,  what  thorough  nobility  have  we 


2l8  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

not  to  set?  A  purity  of  thought,  word,  and  deed 
never  challenged,  a  disinterestedness  never  suspected, 
an  honesty  of  purpose  never  impugned,  a  gentleness 
and  tenderness  that  never  made  a  private  enemy  or 
alienated  a  friend — these  are  indeed  qualities  which 
may  well  make  a  nation  mourn.  But  he  had  intellect 
as  well  as  goodness.  Cautiously  conservative,  fear- 
ing to  pass  the  limits  of  established  systems,  seeking 
the  needful  amendments  rather  from  growth  than 
alteration,  he  proved  himself  in  the  crisis  the  very 
man  best  suited  for  his  post. 

— London  Daily  News,  April  21,  iS6j. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Oh,  slow  to  smite  and  swift  to  spare, 
Gentle  and  merciful  and  just! 

Who,  in  the  fear  of  God,  didst  bear 
The  sword  of  power,  a  nation's  trust! 

In  sorrow  by  thy  bier  we  stand, 
Amid  the  awe  that  hushes  all, 

And  speak  the  anguish  of  a  land 
That  shook  with  horror  at  thy  fall. 

Thy  task  is  done ;  the  bond  are  free : 
We  bear  thee  to  an  honored  grave, 

Whose  proudest  monument  shall  be 

The  broken  fetters  of  the  slave. 

Copyrighted,  1883,  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co, 


Letter  to  the  workingmen  of  Manchester.   219 

Pure  was  thy  life ;  its  bloody  close 

Hath  placed  thee  with  the  sons  of  light, 

Among  the  noble  host  of  those 

Who  perished  in  the  cause  of  Right. 

William  Cullen  Bryant. 


LETTER    TO    THE    WORKINGMEN    OF    MAN- 
CHESTER, ENGLAND. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  Jan.  19,  1863. 

To  the  Workingmen  of  Manchester: — I  have  the 
honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  address  and 
resolutions  which  you  sent  me  on  the  eve  of  the  new 
year. 

When  I  came,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  through  a 
free  and  constitutional  election  to  preside  in  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  the  country  was 
found  at  the  verge  of  civil  war.  Whatever  might 
have  been  the  cause,  or  whosesoever  the  fault,  one 
duty,  paramount  to  all  others,  was  before  me,  namely, 
to  maintain  and  preserve  at  once  the  Constitution  and 
the  integrity  of  the  Federal  Republic.  A  conscien- 
tious purpose  to  perform  this  duty  is  the  key  to  all 
the  measures  of  administration  which  have  been  and 
to  all  which  will  hereafter  be  pursued.  Under  our 
frame  of  government  and  my  official  oath,  I  could  not 
depart  from  this  purpose  if  I  would.  It  is  not  always 
in  the  power  of    governments  to  enlarge  or  restrict 


2  20     LETTER    TO    THE    WORKINGMEN    OF    MANCHESTER. 

the  scope  of  moral  results  which  follow  the  policies 
that  they  ma)*  deem  it  necessary  for  the  public  safety 
from  time  to  time  to  adopt. 

I  have  understood  well  that  the  duty  of  self-preser- 
vation rests  solely  with  the  American  people ;  but  I 
have  at  the  same  time  been  aware  that  the  favor  or 
disfavor  of  foreign  nations  might  have  a  material 
influence  in  enlarging  and  prolonging  the  struggle  with 
disloyal  men  in  which  the  country  is  engaged.  A 
fair  examination  of  history  has  served  to  authorize  a 
belief  that  the  past  actions  and  influences  of  the 
United  States  were  generally  regarded  as  having  been 
beneficial  toward  mankind.  I  have,  therefore,  reckoned 
upon  the  forbearance  of  nations.  Circumstances — to 
some  of  which  you  kindly  allude — induced  me  espe- 
cially to  expect  that  if  justice  and  good  faith  should  be 
practised  by  the  United  States,  they  would  encounter 
no  hostile  influence  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain.  It 
is  now  a  pleasant  duty  to  acknowledge  the  demonstra- 
tion you  have  given  of  your  desire  that  a  spirit  of 
peace  and  amity  toward  this  country  may  prevail  in 
the  councils  of  your  Queen,  who  is  respected  and 
esteemed  in  your  own  country  only  more  than  she 
is  by  the  kindred  nation  which  has  its  home  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic. 

I  know  and  deeply  deplore  the  sufferings  which  the 
workingmen  at  Manchester,  and  in  all  Europe,  are 
called  to  endure  in  this  crisis.  It  has  been  often  and 
studiously  represented  that  the  attempt  to  overthrow 


LETTER    TO    THE    WORKINGMEN    OF    MANCHESTER.     221 

this  Government,  which  was  built  upon  the  foundation 
of  human  rights,  and  to  substitute  for  it  one  which 
should  rest  exclusively  on  the  basis  of  human  slavery, 
was  likel}r  to  obtain  the  favor  of  Europe.  Through 
the  action  of  our  disloyal  citizens,  the  workingmen  of 
Europe  have  been  subjected  to  severe  trials  for  the 
purpose  of  forcing  their  sanction  to  that  attempt. 
Under  the  circumstances,  I  cannot  but  regard  your 
decisive  utterances  upon  the  question  as  an  instance 
of  sublime  Christian  heroism  which  has  not  been  sur- 
passed in  any  age  or  in  any  country.  It  is  indeed  an 
energetic  and  reinspiring  assurance  of  the  inherent 
power  of  truth,  and  of  the  ultimate  and  universal 
triumph  of  justice,  humanity,  and  freedom.  I  do  not 
doubt  that  the  sentiments  you  have  expressed  will  be 
sustained  by  your  great  nation;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  assuring  you  that  they 
will  excite  admiration,  esteem,  and  the  most  reciprocal 
feelings  of  friendship  among  the  American  people. 
I  hail  this  interchange  of  sentiment,  therefore,  as  an 
augury  that  whatever  else  may  happen,  whatever 
misfortune  may  befall  your  country  or  my  own,  the 
peace  and  friendship  which  now  exist  between  the 
two  nations  will  be,  as  it  shall  be  my  desire  to  make 

them,  perpetual. 

Abraham  Lincoln. 


222  PROCLAMATION    FOR    THANKSGIVING. 


Desirous  of  inaugurating  the  custom  of  setting  apart 
each  year  a  common  day  throughout  the  land  for  thanks- 
giving  and  prayer,  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  the  following: 

PROCLAMATION    FOR    THANKSGIVING. 

The  year  that  is  drawing  towards  its  close  has  been 
filled  with  the  blessings  of  fruitful  fields  and  healthful 
skies.  To  these  bounties,  which  are  so  constantly 
enjoyed  that  we  are  prone  to  forget  the  source  from 
which  they  come,  others  have  been  added,  which  are 
of  so  extraordinary  a  nature  that  they  cannot  fail  to 
penetrate  and  soften  the  heart  which  is  habitually 
insensible  to  the  ever  watchful  providence  of 
Almighty  God.  In  the  midst  of  a  civil  war  of 
unequaled  magnitude  and  severity,  which  has  some- 
times seemed  to  foreign  States  to  invite  and  provoke 
their  aggressions,  peace  has  been  preserved  with  all 
nations,  order  has  been  maintained,  the  laws  have 
been  respected  and  obeyed,  and  harmony  has  pre- 
vailed everywhere,  except  in  the  theater  of  military 
conflict ;  and  that  theater  has  been  greatly  contracted 
by  the  advancing  armies  and  navies  of  the  Union. 
The  needful  diversion  of  wealth  and  of  strength 
from  the  fields  of  peaceful  industry  to  the  national 
defense  has  not  arrested  the  plow,  the  shuttle,  or 
the  ship;  the  ax  has  enlarged  the  borders  of  our 
settlements,  and  the  mines,   as  well  of  iron  and  coal 


PROCLAMATION    FOR    THANKSGIVING.  223 

as  of  the  precious  metals,  have  yielded  even  more 
abundantly  than  heretofore.  Population  has  steadily 
increased,  notwithstanding  the  waste  that  has  been 
made  in  the  camp,  the  siege,  and  the  battle-field,  and 
the  country,  rejoicing  in  the  consciousness  of  aug- 
mented strength  and  vigor,  is  permitted  to  expect  a 
continuance  of  years  with  a  large  increase  of  free- 
dom. No  human  counsel  hath  devised,  nor  hath  any 
mortal  hand  worked  out  these  great  things.  They 
are  the  gracious  gifts  of  the  Most  High  God,  who, 
while  dealing  with  us  in  anger  for  our  sins,  hath 
nevertheless  remembered  mercy. 

It  hath  seemed  to  me  fit  and  proper  that  they 
should  be  solemnly  and  gratefully  acknowledged 
as  with  one  heart  and  voice  by  the  whole  American 
people.  I  do,  therefore,  invite  my  fellow-citizens  in 
every  part  of  the  United  States,  and  also  those  who 
are  at  sea  and  those  who  are  sojourning  in  foreign 
lands,  to  set  apart  and  observe  the  last  Thursday  of 
November  next  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving  and  prayer 
to  our  beneficent  Father  who  dwelleth  in  the  heavens. 
And  I  recommend  to  them  that,  while  offering  up  the 
ascriptions  justly  due  to  him  for  such  singular  deliver- 
ances and  blessings,  they  do  also,  with  humble 
penitence  for  our  National  perverseness  and  dis- 
obedience, commend  to  his  tender  care  all  those 
who  have  become  widows,  orphans,  mourners,  or 
sufferers  in  the  lamentable  civil  strife  in  which  we  are 
unavoidably    engaged,    and    fervently    implore     the 


\ 

1 


224        DEDICATION    OF    THE    GETTYSBURG    CEMETERY. 

interposition  of  the  Almighty  hand  to  heal  the 
wounds  of  the  nation,  and  to  restore  it,  as  soon  as 
may  be  consistent  with  the  Divine  purposes,  to  the  full 
enjoyment  of  peace,  harmony,  tranquillity,  and  union. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  the  third  day 
of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  Independence 
of  the  United  States  the  eighty-eighth. 

By  the  President:  Abraham  Lincoln. 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State. 


ADDRESS     AT     THE     DEDICATION     OF    THE 
GETTYSBURG   NATIONAL   CEMETERY. 

{November  ig,  1863.) 

Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago,  our  fathers  brought 
forth  upon  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in 
Liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great 
civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation 
so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endure. 
We  are  met  on  a  great  battle-field  of  that  war.  We 
are  met  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final 
resting  place  of  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that 
that  nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and 
proper  that  we  should  do  this. 

But  in  a  larger  sense  we  cannot  dedicate,  we  cannot 


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EXTRACT    FROM    GETTYSBURG    ODE.  225 

consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow  this  ground.  The  brave 
men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  con- 
secrated it  far  above  our  power  to  add  or  detract. 
The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember,  what 
we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did 
here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated 
here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought 
here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather 
for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remain- 
ing before  us, — that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take 
increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  here 
gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion, — that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in 
vain, — that  this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new 
birth  of  freedom, — and  that  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from 
the  earth. 


EXTRACT    FROM    GETTYSBURG    ODE. 

After  the  eyes  that  looked,  the  lips  that  spake 
Here,  from  the  shadows  of  impending  death, 

Those  words  of  solemn  breath, 

What  voice  may  fitly  break 
The  silence,  doubly  hallowed,  left  by  him? 
We  can  but  bow  the  head,  with  eyes  grown  dim, 

And,  as  a  Nation's  litany,  repeat 
The  phrase  his  martyrdom  hath  made  complete, 
Noble  as  then,  but  now  more  sadly  sweet : 


226        EXTRACT    FROM   THE   LAST    ANNUAL   MESSAGE. 

"Let  us,  the  Living,  rather  dedicate 
Ourselves  to  the  unfinished  work,  which  they 
Thus  far  advanced  so  nobly  on  its  way, 

And  save  the  periled  State ! 
Let  us,  upon  this  field  where  they,  the  brave, 
Their  last  full  measure  of  devotion  gave, 
Highly  resolve  they  have  not  died  in  vain! — 
That,  under  God,  the  Nation's  later  birth 

Of  Freedom,  and  the  people's  gain 
Of  their  own  Sovereignty,  shall  never  wane 
And  perish  from  the  circle  of  the  earth!" 
From  such  a  perfect  text,  shall  Song  aspire 

To  light  her  faded  fire, 

And  into  wandering  music  turn 
Its  virtue,  simple,  sorrowful,  and  stern? 
His  voice  all  elegies  anticipated; 

For,  whatsoe'er  the  strain, 

We  hear  that  one  refrain : 
"We  consecrate  ourselves  to  them,  the  Consecrated!" 

Bayard  Taylor. 


EXTRACT   FROM   THE   LAST   ANNUAL 

MESSAGE. 

The  war  continues.  Since  the  last  annual  message 
all  the  important  lines  and  positions  then  occupied 
by  our  forces  have  been  maintained,  and  our  armies 
have  steadily  advanced,  thus  liberating  the  regions 
left   in  the  rear;    so  that    Missouri,    Kentucky,   Ten- 


EXTRACT    FROM    THE    LAST    ANNUAL   MESSAGE.         227 

nessee,  and  parts  of  other  States  have  again  produced 
reasonably  fair  crops. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  military 
operations  of  the  year  is  General  Sherman's  attempted 
march  of  three  hundred  miles  directly  through 
insurgent  regions.  It  tends  to  show  a  great  increase 
of  our  relative  strength,  that  our  General-in-Chief 
should  feel  able  to  confront  and  hold  in  check  every 
active  force  of  the  enemy  and  yet  to  detach  a  well- 
appointed,  large  army  to  move  on  such  an  expedition. 
The  result  not  yet  being  known,  conjecture  in  regard 
to  it  is  not  here  indulged. 

Important  movements  have  also  occurred  during 
the  year  to  the  effect  of  moulding  society  for  dura- 
bility in  the  Union.  Although  short  of  complete 
success,  it  is  much  in  the  right  direction  that  twelve 
thousand  citizens  in  each  of  the  States  of  Arkansas 
and  Louisiana  have  organized  loyal  State  govern- 
ments, with  free  Constitutions,  and  are  earnestly 
struggling  to  maintain  and  administer  them. 

The  movements  in  the  same  direction,  more  exten- 
sive though  less  definite,  in  Missouri,  Kentucky,  and 
Tennessee,  should  not  be  overlooked. 

But  Maryland  presents  the  example  of  complete  suc- 
cess. Maryland  is  secure  to  liberty  and  union  for  all 
the  future.  The  genius  of  rebellion  will  no  more  claim 
Maryland.  Like  another  foul  spirit,  being  driven  out, 
it  may  seek  to  tear  her  but  it  will  rule  her  no  more. 

At  the  last  session  of  Congress  a  proposed  amend- 


228        EXTRACT    FROM    THE    LAST    ANNUAL    MESSAGE. 

ment  of  the  Constitution,  abolishing  slavery  through- 
out the  United  States,  passed  the  Senate,  but  failed 
for  lack  of  the  requisite  two-thirds  vote  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Although  the  present  is  the  same 
Congress,  and  nearly  the  same  members,  and  without 
questioning  the  patriotism  of  those  who  stood  in  opposi- 
tion, I  venture  to  recommend  the  reconsideration  and 
passage  of  the  measure  at  the  present  session.*  Of 
course  the  abstract  question  is  not  changed,  but  an  in- 
tervening election  shows,  almost  certainly,  that  the  next 
Congress  will  pass  the  measure  if  this  does  not.  Hence 
there  is  only  a  question  of  time  as  to  when  the  proposed 
amendment  will  go  to  the  States  for  their  action,  and 
as  it  is  so  to  go  at  all  events,  may  we  not  agree  that 
the  sooner  the  better?  It  is  not  claimed  that  the 
election  has  imposed  a  duty  on  members  to  change 
their  views  or  their  votes  any  further  than,  as  an 
additional  element  to  be  considered,  their  judgment 
may  be  affected  by  it.  It  is  the  voice  of  the  people 
now  for  the  first  time  heard  upon  the  question.  In  a 
great  national  crisis  like  ours,  unanimity  of  action 
among  those  seeking  a  common  end  is  very  desirable, 
— almost  indispensable;  and  yet  no  approach  to  such 
unanimity  is  attainable,  unless  some  deference  shall 
be  paid  to  the  will  of  the  majority,  simply  because  it 
is  the  will  of  the  majority.  In  this  case  the  common 
end  is  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  and  among  the 


^Proposed  by  Congress  Feb.  i,  1865,  and  declared  in  force  Dec. 
18, 1865. 


EXTRACT    FROM    THE    LAST    ANNUAL    MESSAGE.         229 

means  to  secure  that  end,  such  will,  through  the 
election,  is  most  clearly  declared  in  favor  of  such 
Constitutional  Amendment. 

The  most  reliable  indication  of  public  purpose  in 
this  country  is  derived  through  our  popular  election. 
Judging  by  the  recent  canvass  and  its  result,  the 
purpose  of  the  people  within  the  loyal  States  to  main- 
tain the  integrity  of  the  Union,  was  never  more  firm 
nor  more  nearly  unanimous  than  now.  The  extra- 
ordinary calmness  and  good  order  with  which  the 
millions  of  voters  met  and  mingled  at  the  polls  give 
strong  assurance  of  this.  Not  only  those  who  sup- 
ported the  ''Union  Ticket,"  so  called,  but  a  great 
majority  of  the  opposing  party  also,  may  be  fairly 
claimed  to  entertain,  and  to  be  actuated  by,  the  same 
purpose.  It  is  an  unanswerable  argument  to  this 
effect,  that  no  candidate  to  any  office  whatever,  high 
or  low,  has  ventured  to  seek  votes  on  the  avowal  that 
he  was  for  giving  up  the  Union.  There  has  been 
much  impugning  of  motives,  and  much  heated  con- 
troversy as  to  the  proper  means  and  best  mode  of 
advancing  the  Union  cause ;  but  on  the  distinct  issue 
of  Union  or  no  Union  the  politicians  have  shown  their 
instinctive  knowledge  that  there  is  no  diversity  among 
the  people.  In  affording  the  people  a  fair  oppor- 
tunity of  showing  one  to  another  and  to  the  world 
this  firmness  and  unanimity  of  purpose,  the  election 
has  been  of  vast  value  to  the  National  cause. 

The  election    has  exhibited   another   fact,   not   less 


$30        EXTRACT    FROM    THE    LAST    ANNUAL    MESSAGE. 

valuable  to  be  known — the  fact  that  we  do  not 
approach  exhaustion  in  the  most  important  branch  of 
the  national  resources — that  of  living  men.  While 
it  is  melancholy  to  reflect  that  the  war  has  filled  so 
many  graves,  and  carried  mourning  to  so  many 
hearts,  it  is  some  relief  to  know  that  compared  with 
the  surviving  the  fallen  have  been  so  few.  While 
corps,  and  divisions,  and  brigades,  and  regiments 
have  formed,  and  fought,  and  dwindled,  and  gone 
out  of  existence,  a  great  majority  of  the  men  who 
composed  them  are  still  living.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  naval  service.  The  election  returns  prove 
this.  So  many  voters  could  not  else  be  found.  The 
States  regularly  holding  elections,  both  now  and  four 
years  ago, — to  wit:  California,  Connecticut,  Delaware, 
Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa ,  Kentucky,  Maine,  Maryland, 
Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  New 
Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  Ohio,  Oregon, 
Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  West  Vir- 
ginia, and  Wisconsin, — cast  3,982,011  votes  now, 
against  3,870,222  then;  to  which  are  to  be  added 
33,762  cast  now  in  the  new  States  of  Kansas  and 
Nevada,  which  States  did  not  vote  in  i860;  thus 
swelling  the  aggregate  to  4,015,773,  and  the  net 
increase  during  the  three  years  and  a  half  of  war, 
to  145,551.  To  this  again  should  be  added  the  num- 
ber of  all  soldiers  in  the  field  from  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Indiana,  Illi- 
nois, and  California,  who  by  the  laws  of  those  States 


EXTRACT    FROM    THE    LAST    ANNUAL    MESSAGE.         23 1 

could  not  vote  away  from  their  homes,  and  which 
number  cannot  be  less  than  ninety  thousand.  Nor 
yet  is  this  all.  The  number  in  organized  territories 
is  triple  now  what  it  was  four  years  ago,  while 
thousands,  white  and  black,  join  us  as  the  National 
arms  force  back  the  insurgent  lines.  So  much  is 
shown,  affirmatively  and  negatively,  by  the  election. 

It  is  not  material  to  inquire  how  the  increase  has 
been  produced,  or  to  show  that  it  would  have  been 
greater  but  for  the  war,  which  is  probably  true;  the 
important  fact  remaining  demonstrated  that  we  have 
more  men  now  than  we  had  when  the  war  began;  that 
we  are  not  exhausted,  nor  in  process  of  exhaustion; 
that  we  are  gaining  strength,  and  may,  if  need  be, 
maintain  the  contest  indefinitely.  This  as  to  men. 
Material  resources  are  now  more  complete  and 
abundant  than  ever. 

The  National  resources,  then,  are  unexhausted, 
and,  as  we  believe,  inexhaustible.  The  public  pur- 
pose to  reestablish  and  maintain  the  National 
authority  is  unchanged,  and,  as  we  believe,  unchange- 
able. The  manner  of  continuing  the  effort  remains 
to  choose.  On  careful  consideration  of  all  the  evi- 
dence accessible,  it  seems  to  me  that  no  attempts  at 
negotiation  with  the  insurgent  leader  could  result  in 
any  good.  He  would  accept  of  nothing  short  of 
severance  of  the  Union.  His  declarations  to  this  effect 
are  explicit  and  oft-repeated.  He  does  not  attempt  to 
deceive  us.     He  affords  us  no  excuse  to  deceive  our- 


232        EXTRACT    FROM    THE    LAST    ANNUAL    MESSAGE. 

selves.     He  cannot  voluntarily  re-accept  the  Union; 
we  cannot  voluntarily  yield  it. 

Between  him  and  us  the  issue  is  distinct,  simple, 
and  inflexible.  It  is  an  issue  which  can  only  be  tried 
by  war,  and  decided  by  victory.  If  we  yield,  we  are 
beaten ;  if  the  Southern  people  fail  him,  he  is  beaten. 
Either  way  it  would  be  the  victory  and  defeat  follow- 
ing war.  What  is  true,  however,  of  him  who  heads 
the  insurgent  cause,  is  not  necessarily  true  of  those 
who  follow.  Although  he  cannot  re-accept  the  Union, 
they  can.  Some  of  them,  we  know,  already  desire 
peace  and  reunion.  The  number  of  such  may  increase. 
They  can  at  any  moment  have  peace  simply  by 
laying  down  their  arms  and  submitting  to  the 
National  authority  under  the  Constitution.  After  so 
much,  the  Government  could  not,  if  it  would,  maintain 
war  against  them.  The  loyal  people  would  not 
sustain  or  allow  it.  If  questions  should  remain,  we 
would  adjust  them  by  the  peaceful  means,  of  legisla- 
tion, conference,  courts,  and  votes,  operating  only  in 
constitutional  and  lawful  channels. 

Some  certain,  and  other  possible,  questions  are,  and 
would  be,  beyond  the  Executive  power  to  adjust;  as, 
for  instance,  the  admission  of  members  into  Congress, 
and  whatever  might  require  the  appropriation  of 
money.  The  Executive  power  itself  would  be  really 
diminished  by  the  cessation  of  actual  war.  Pardons 
and  remissions  of  forfeitures,  however,  would  still 
be   within   Executive    control.       In    what   spirit    and 


EXTRACT    FROM    THE    LAST    ANNUAL    MESSAGE.        233 

temper  this  control  would  be  exercised  can  be 
fairly  judged  of  by  the  past.  A  year  ago  general 
pardon  and  amnesty  upon  specified  terms  were 
offered  to  all  except  certain  designated  classes, 
and  it  was  at  this  same  time  made  known  that 
the  excepted  classes  were  still  within  contempla- 
tion of  special  clemency.  During  the  year  many 
availed  themselves  of  the  general  provision,  and 
many  more  would,  only  that  the  sign  of  bad  faith 
in  some  led  to  such  precautionary  measures  as  ren- 
dered the  practical  process  less  easy  and  certain.  Dur- 
ing the  same  time,  also,  special  pardons  have  been 
granted  to  individuals  of  the  excepted  classes,  and 
no  voluntary  application  has  been  denied. 

Thus,  practically,  the  door  has  been  for  a  full  year 
open  to  all,  except  such  as  were  not  in  condition  to 
make  free  choice, — that  is,  such  as  were  in  custody  or 
under  constraint.  It  is  still  so  open  to  all;  but  the 
time  may  come — probably  will  come — when  public 
duty  shall  demand  that  it  be  closed ;  and  that  in  lieu 
more  vigorous  measures  than  heretofore  shall  be 
adopted. 

In  presenting  the  abandonment  of  armed  resistance 
to  the  National  authority  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents 
as  the  only  indispensable  condition  to  ending  the  war 
on  the  part  of  the  Government,  I  retract  nothing 
heretofore  said  as  to  slavery.  I  repeat  the  declara- 
tion made  a  year  ago,  that  "while  I  remain  in  my 
present   position    I   shall    not    attempt   to    retract   or 


234  LAUS    DEO. 

modify  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  nor  shall  I 
return  to  slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms 
of  that  proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Con- 
gress." 

If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means, 
make  it  an  Executive  duty  to  re-enslave  such  persons, 
another,  and  not  I,  must  be  their  instrument  to  per- 
form it. 

In   stating  a    single    condition    of  peace,    I    mean 

simply  to  say,  that  the  war  will  cease  on  the  part  of 

the  Government  whenever  it  shall  have  ceased  on  the 

part  of  those  who  began  it. 
December  6,  1864.  Abraham  Lincoln. 


LAUS    DEO! 


{On  hearing  the  bells   ring  on   the  passage  of  the  constitu- 
tional a??iendment  abolishing  slavery.) 

It  is  done ! 

Clang  of  bell  and  roar  of  gun 
Send  the  tidings  up  and  down. 

How  the  belfries  rock  and  reel! 

How  the  great  guns,  peal  on  peal, 
Fling  the  joy  from  town  to  town! 

Ring,  O  bells! 
Every  stroke  exulting  tells 
Of  the  burial  of  crime, 


laus  bed.  235 

Loud  and  long,  that  all  may  hear, 
Ring  for  every  listening  ear 
Of  Eternity  and  Time ! 

Let  us  kneel : 
God's  own  voice  is  in  that  peal, 

And  this  spot  is  holy  ground. 
Lord,  forgive  us !     What  are  we, 
That  our  eyes  this  glory  see, 

That  our  ears  have  heard  the  sound! 

For  the  Lord 

On  the  whirlwind  is  abroad; 
In  the  earthquake  he  has  spoken ; 

He  has  smitten  with  his  thunder 

The  iron  walls  asunder, 
And  the  gates  of  brass  are  broken ! 

Loud  and  Long 

Lift  the  old  exulting  song; 
Sing  with  Miriam  by  the  sea 

He  has  cast  the  mighty  down ; 

Horse  and  rider  sink  and  drown; 
"He  hath  triumphed  gloriously!" 

Did  we  dare, 

In  our  agony  of  prayer, 
Ask  for  more  than  he  has  done? 

When  was  ever  his  right  hand 

Over  any  time  or  land 
Stretched  as  now  beneath  the  sun? 


-'3^  LAUS    DEO. 

How  they  pale. 
Ancient  myth  and  song  and  tale, 

In  this  wonder  of  our  days, 
When  the  cruel  rod  of  war 
Blossoms  white  with  righteous  law, 

And  the  wrath  of  man  is  praise ! 

Blotted  out! 

All  within  and  all  about 
Shall  fresher  life  begin ; 

Freer  breathe  the  universe 

As  it  rolls  its  heavy  curse 
On  the  dead  and  buried  sin! 

It  is  done ! 
In  the  circuit  of  the  sun 

Shall  the  sound  thereof  go  forth. 
It  shall  bid  the  sad  rejoice, 
It  shall  give  the  dumb  a  voice, 

It  shall  belt  with  joy  the  earth ! 

Ring  and  swing, 
Bells  of  joy!     On  morning's  wing 
Send  the  song  of  praise  abroad! 
With  a  sound  of  broken  chains 
Tell  the  nations  that  He  reigns, 
Who  alone  is  Lord  and  God ! 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier. 


SECOND    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  237 


SECOND    INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

« 
! 

{March  4,  iS6j.) 

Fellow-Countrymen  : — At  this  second  appearing  to 
take  the  oath  of  the  Presidential  office,  there  is  less 
occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was  at 
the  first.  Then,  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail,  of 
a  course  to  be  pursued,  seemed  very  fitting  and 
proper.  Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during 
which  public  declarations  have  been  constantly  called 
forth  on  every  point  and  phase  of  the  great  contest 
which  still  absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the 
energies  of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be 
presented. 

The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else 
chiefly  depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to 
myself;  and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and 
encouraging  to  all.  With  high  hope  for  the  future, 
no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured.  On  the 
occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years  ago,  all 
thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impending  civil 
war.  All  dreaded  it;  all  sought  to  avoid  it.  While 
the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from  this 
place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union  without 
war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seeking  to 
destroy  it  without  war, — seeking  to  dissolve  the 
Union  and  divide  effects  by  negotiation. 

Both   parties    deprecated    war;    but   one   of    them 


238  SECOND    INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

would  make  war  rather  than  let  the  nation  survive, 
and  the  other  would  accept  war  rather  than  let  it 
perish — and  the  war  came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored 
slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but 
located  in  the  southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves 
constituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All 
knew  that  this  interest  was,  somehow,  the  cause  of 
the  war.  To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this 
interest  was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would 
rend  the  Union,  even  by  war;  while  the  Government 
claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  terri- 
torial enlargement  of  it.  Neither  party  expected  for 
the  war  the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which  it  has 
already  attained.  Neither  anticipated  that  the  cause 
of  the  conflict  might  cease  even  before  the  conflict 
itself  should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph, 
and  a  result  less  fundamental  and  astounding.  Both 
read  the  same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same  God ;  and 
each  invokes  His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may 
seem  strange  that  any  man  should  dare  to  ask  a  just 
God's  assistance  in  wringing  his  bread  from  the  sweat 
of  other  men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we 
be  not  judged. 

The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered.  That 
of  neither  has  been  answered  fully.  The  Almighty 
has  his  own  purposes.  "Woe  unto  the  world  because 
of  offenses !  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offenses  come ; 
but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh. " 


SECOND    INAUGXJRAL    ADDRESS.  239 

If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of  those 
offenses  which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  must  needs 
come,  but  which,  having  continued  through  His 
appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He 
gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the 
woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense  came,  shall  we 
discern  therein  any  departure  from  those  Divine 
attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  always 
ascribe  to  Him? 

Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet, 
if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth 
piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop 
of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another 
drawn  with  the  sword;  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said — "that  the  judgments 
of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether. ' ' 

With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ;  to  bind 
up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  his 
orphans ;  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a 
just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all 
nations. 


I 


240  THE    SECOND    INAUGURAL. 

THE   SECOND   INAUGURAL. 

The  "Second  Inaugural" — a  written  composition, 
though  read  to  the  citizens  from  the  steps  of  the 
Capitol — well  illustrates  our  words.  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
to  tell  his  countrymen  that,  after  a  four  years' 
struggle,  the  war  was  practically  ended.  The  four 
years'  agony,  the  passion  of  love  which  he  felt  for 
his  country,  his  joy  in  her  salvation,  his  sense  of 
tenderness  for  those  who  fell,  of  pity  mixed  with 
sternness  for  the  men  who  had  deluged  the  land  with 
blood, — all  the  thoughts  these  feelings  inspired  were 
behind  Lincoln,  pressing  for  expression.  A  writer  of 
less  power  would  have  been  overwhelmed.  Lincoln 
remained  master  of  the  emotional  and  intellectual 
situation.  In  three  or  four  hundred  words  that  burn 
with  the  heat  of  their  compression,  he  tells  the  history 
of  the  war  and  reads  its  lesson.  No  nobler  thoughts 
were  ever  conceived.  No  man  ever  found  words 
more  adequate  to  his  desire.  Here  is  the  whole  tale 
of  the  nation's  shame  and  misery,  of  her  heroic 
struggle  to  free  herself  therefrom,  and  of  her  victory. 
Had  Lincoln  written  a  hundred  times  as  much  more, 
he  could  not  have  said  more  fully  what  he  desired 
to  say.  Every  thought  receives  its  complete  expres- 
sion, and  there  is  no  word  employed  which  does 
not  directly  and  manifestly  contribute  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  central  thought. 

— London  Spectator,  April  25  and  May  2,  1891. 


LAST    PUBLIC    ADDRESS.  24I 

LAST    PUBLIC    ADDRESS. 

{Delivered   April  11,  iS6j,  in    Washington,  from    the    White 
House,  in  response  to  a  call  from  the  people  gathered. ) 

Fellow-Citizens: — We  meet  this  evening  not  in 
sorrow,  but  in  gladness  of  heart.  The  evacuation  of 
Petersburg  and  Richmond,  and  the  surrender  of  the 
principal  insurgent  army,  give  hope  of  a  righteous  and 
speedy  peace,  whose  joyous  expression  cannot  be 
restrained.  In  the  midst  of  this,  however,  He  from 
whom  all  blessings  flow  must  not  be  forgotten.  A 
call  for  a  National  Thanksgiving  is  being  prepared, 
and  will  be  duly  promulgated.  Nor  must  those 
whose  harder  part  gives  us  the  cause  of  rejoicing  be 
overlooked.  Their  honors  must  not  be  parceled 
out  with  others.  I  myself  was  near  the  front,  and 
had  the  high  pleasure  of  transmitting  much  of  the 
good  news  to  you;  but  no  part  of  the  honor  or  plan  or 
execution  is  mine.  To  General  Grant,  his  skillful 
officers,  and  brave  men,  all  belongs.  The  gallant 
Navy  stood  ready,  but  was  not  in  reach  to  take  an 
active  part. 

By  these  recent  successes  the  reinauguration  of  the 
national  authority — reconstruction — which  has  had  a 
large  share  of  thought  from  the  first,  is  pressed 
much  more  closely  upon  our  attention.  It  is  fraught 
with  great  difficulty.  Unlike  the  case  of  a  war  between 
independent  nations,  there  is  no  authorized  organ 
for  us  to  treat  with.     No  one  man  has  authority  to 


242  LAST    PUBLIC    ADDRESS. 

give  up  the  rebellion  for  any  other  man.  We  simply 
must  begin  with  and  mould  from  disorganized  and 
discordant  elements.  Nor  is  it  a  small  additional 
embarrassment  that  we,  the  loyal  people,  differ 
amongst  ourselves  as  to  the  mode,  manner,  and 
measure  of  reconstruction.  As  a  general  rule,  I  ab- 
stain from  reading  the  reports  of  attacks  upon  myself, 
wishing  not  to  be  provoked  by  that  to  which  I  can- 
not properly  offer  an  answer.  But  in  spite  of  this 
precaution,  it  comes  to  my  knowledge  that  I  am  much 
censured  from  some  supposed  agency  in  setting  up  and 
seeking  to  sustain  the  new  State  Government  of 
Louisiana. 

In  this  I  have  done  just  so  much  as,  and  no  more 
than,  the  public  knows.  In  the  annual  Message  of 
December,  1863,  and  in  the  accompanying  Proclama- 
tion, I  presented  a  plan  of  reconstruction,  as  the 
phrase  goes,  which  I  promised,  if  adopted  by  any 
State,  should  be  acceptable  to  and  sustained  by  the 
Executive  Government  of  the  nation.  I  distinctly 
stated  that  this  was  not  the  only  plan  which  might 
possibly  be  acceptable,  and  I  also  distinctly  protested 
that  the  Executive  claimed  no  right  to  say  when  or 
whether  members  should  be  admitted  to  seats  in 
Congress  from  such  States.  This  plan  was  in  ad- 
vance submitted  to  the  then  Cabinet,  and  was  distinctly 
approved  by  every  member  of  it.  One  of  them 
suggested  that  I  should  then  and  in  that  connection 
apply  the    Emancipation   Proclamation    to  the   there- 


LAST    PUBLIC    ADDRESS.  243 

tofore  excepted  parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana, 
that  I  should  drop  the  suggestion  about  apprentice- 
ship for  freed  people,  and  that  I  should  omit  the 
protest  against  my  own  power  in  regard  to  the 
admission  of  members  of  Congress;  but  even  he 
approved  every  part  and  parcel  of  the  plan  which  has 
since  been  employed  or  touched  by  the  action  of 
Louisiana. 

The  new  Constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring  eman- 
cipation for  the  whole  State,  practically  applies  the 
proclamation  to  the  part  previously  excepted.  It 
does  not  adopt  apprenticeship  for  freed  people, 
and  it  is  silent — as  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise — 
about  the  admission  of  members  to  Congress.  So 
that,  as  it  applies  to  Louisiana,  every  member  of 
the  Cabinet  fully  approved  the  plan.  The  message 
went  to  Congress,  and  I  received  many  commenda- 
tions of  the  plan,  written  and  verbal,  and  not  a  single 
objection  to  it  from  any  professed  emancipationist 
came  to  my  knowledge  until  after  the  news  reached 
Washington  that  the  people  of  Louisiana  had  begun 
to  move  in  accordance  with  it.  From  about  July, 
1862,  I  had  corresponded  with  different  persons  sup- 
posed to  be  interested  in  seeking  a  reconstruction  of 
a  State  Government  for  Louisiana.  When  the  mes- 
sage of  1863,  with  the  plan  before  mentioned,  reached 
New  Orleans,  General  Banks  wrote  me  that  he  was 
confident  the  people,  with  his  military  cooperation, 
would  reconstruct  substantially  on  that  plan.     I  wrote 


244  LAST    PUBLIC    ADDRESS. 

to  him  and  some  of  them  to  try  it.  They  tried  it, 
and  the  result  is  known.  Such  only  has  been  my 
agency  in  getting  up  the  Louisiana  Government. 
As  to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before 
stated.  But,  as  bad  promises  are  better  broken  than 
kept,  I  shall  treat  this  as  a  bad  promise,  and  break 
it  whenever  I  shall  be  convinced  that  keeping  it 
is  adverse  to  the  public  interest;  but  I  have  not 
yet  been  so  convinced.  I  have  been  shown  a  letter 
on  this  subject,  supposed  to  be  an  able  one,  in  which 
the  writer  expresses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not 
seemed  to  be  definitely  fixed  on  the  question  whether 
the  seceded  States,  so  called,  are  in  the  Union  or 
out  of  it.  It  would  perhaps  add  astonishment  to 
his  regret  were  he  to  learn  that  since  I  have  found 
professed  Union  men  endeavoring  to  make  that 
question,  I  have  purposely  forborne  any  public 
expression  upon  it;  as  it  appears  to  me  that  ques- 
tion has  not  been,  nor  yet  is,  a  practically  material 
one,  and  any  discussion  of  it,  while  it  thus  remains 
practically  immaterial,  could  have  no  effect  other  than 
the  mischievous  one  of  dividing  our  friends.  As  yet, 
whatever  it  may  hereafter  become,  that  question  is 
bad  as  the  basis  of  a  controversy,  and  good  for  nothing 
at  all — a  merely  pernicious  abstraction. 

We  all  agree  that  the  seceded  States,  so  called, 
are  out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the 
Union,  and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  Government, 
civil  and    military,   in    regard    to    those  States    is  to 


LAST    PUBLIC    ADDRESS.  245 

again   get   them    into  that    proper  practical  relation. 
I  believe    it  is  not   only  possible,  but  in  fact  easier, 
to    do    this    without    deciding    or     even    considering 
whether   these    States     have    ever    been    out    of   the 
Union,   than   with  it.      Finding  themselves   safely  at 
home,   it  would  be  utterly  immaterial    whether  they 
had  ever  been  abroad.     Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the 
acts  necessary  to  restoring  the  proper  practical  rela- 
tion between  these  States  and    the  Union,   and  each 
forever    after    innocently    indulge    his    own    opinion 
whether   in    doing    the   acts    he    brought  the    States 
from   without    into    the    Union,   or    only  gave    them 
proper  assistance,  they  never  having  been  out  of  it. 
The  amount  of  constituency,   so   to  speak,   on  which 
the  new  Louisiana  Government  rests,  would  be  more 
satisfactory    to    all    if    it    contained    50,000,     30,000, 
or  even   20,000,   instead  of    only  about    12,000,   as  it 
does.      It    is    also    unsatisfactory    to    some    that    the 
elective  franchise  is  not  given  to  the  colored  men.     I 
would  myself   prefer  that    it  were  conferred    on  the 
very  intelligent,   and    on  those  who  serve  our  cause 
as  soldiers. 

Still,  the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana 
Government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desir- 
able. The  question  is,  will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as 
it  is  and  help  to  improve  it,  or  to  reject  and  disperse 
it?  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical 
relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by 
discarding  her  new  State  Government?     Some  twelve 


246  LAST    PUBLIC    ADDRESS. 

thousand  voters  in  the  heretofore  slave  State  of 
Louisiana  have  sworn  allegiance  to  the  Union, 
assumed  to  be  the  rightful  political  power  of  the 
State,  held  elections,  organized  a  State  government, 
adopted  a  free  State  constitution,  giving  the  benefit 
of  public  schools  equally  to  black  and  white,  and 
empowering  the  Legislature  to  confer  the  elective 
franchise  upon  the  colored  man.  Their  Legislature 
has  already  voted  to  ratify  the  Constitutional  amend- 
ment recently  passed  by  Congress,  abolishing  slavery 
throughout  the  Nation.  These  twelve  thousand 
persons  are  thus  fully  committed  to  the  Union  and 
to  perpetual  freedom  in  the  State — committed  to  the 
very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things,  the  Nation 
wants — and  they  ask  the  Nation's  recognition  and  its 
assistance  to  make  good  their  committal. 

Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our 
utmost  to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in 
effect,  say  to  the  white  man,  "You  are  worthless  or 
worse;  we  will  neither  help  you,  nor  be  helped  by 
you."  To  the  blacks  we  say,  "This  cup  of  liberty 
which  your  old  masters  hold  to  your  lips  we  will 
dash  from  you,  and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of 
gathering  the  spilled  and  scattered  contents  in  some 
vague  and  undefined  when,  where,  and  how. "  If  this 
course,  by  discouraging  and  paralyzing  both  white 
and  black,  has  any  tendency  to  bring  Louisiana  into 
proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union,  I  have  so 
far  been  unable  to  perceive  it.     If,  on  the  contrary, 


LAST    PUBLIC    ADDRESS.  247 

we  recognize  and  sustain  the  new  Government  of 
Louisiana,  the  converse  of  all  this  is  made  true.  We 
encourage  the  hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  the 
twelve  thousand  to  adhere  to  their  work,  and  argue 
for  it,  and  proselyte  for  it,  and  fight  for  it,  and  feed 
it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to  a  complete  success. 
The  colored  man,  too,  in  seeing  all  united  for  him, 
is  inspired  with  vigilance,  and  energy,  and  daring, 
to  the  same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires  the  elective 
franchise,  will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by  saving  the 
already  advanced  steps  toward  it  than  by  running 
backward  over  them?  Concede  that  the  new  Gov- 
ernment of  Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it  should  be 
as  the  egg  is  to  the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the 
fowl  by  hatching  the  egg  than  by  smashing  it. 

Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana  we  also  reject  one 
vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the 
National  Constitution.  To  meet  this  proposition  it 
has  been  argued  that  no  more  than  three-fourths 
of  those  States  which  have  not  attempted  secession 
are  necessary  to  validly  ratify  the  amendment.  I 
do  not  commit  myself  against  this  further  than  to 
say  that  such  a  ratification  would  be  questionable, 
and  sure  to  be  persistently  questioned,  while  a  rati- 
fication by  three-fourths  of  all  the  States  would  be 
unquestioned  and  unquestionable.  I  repeat  the 
question:  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper 
practical  relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustain- 
ing  or    by  discarding    her    new    State    Government? 


248  MY    CAPTAIN. 

What  has  been  said  of  Louisiana  will  apply  gener- 
ally to  other  States;  yet  so  great  peculiarities  per- 
tain to  each  State,  and  such  important  and  sudden 
changes  occur  in  the  same  State,  and  withal  so  new 
and  unprecedented  is  the  whole  case  that  no  exclusive 
and  inflexible  plan  can  safely  be  prescribed  as  to 
details  and  collaterals.  An  exclusive  and  inflexible 
plan  would  surely  become  a  new  entanglement. 
Important  principles  may  and  must  be  inflexible. 
In  the  present  situation,  as  the  phrase  goes,  it  may  be 
my  duty  to  make  some  new  announcement  to  the 
people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering,  and  shall 
not  fail  to  act  when  satisfied  that  action  will  be 
proper. 


MY  CAPTAIN. 


(On  the  Death  of  Lincoln. ) 
O  Captain !  my  Captain !  our  fearful  trip  is  done ; 
The    ship  has    weathered    every  rock,   the   prize  we 

sought  is  won ; 
The   port   is   near,   the   bells   I   hear,   the  people   all 

exulting, 

While  follow  eyes  the    steady  keel,   the  vessel  grim 

and  daring: 
But,  O  heart!  heart!  heart! 

Leave  you  not  the  little  spot, 

Where  on  the  deck  my  Captain  lies, 

Fallen  cold  and  dead. 


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LINCOLN  MONUMENT,  SPRINGFIELD. 


MY    CAPTAIN.  249 

O    Captain!   ,my    Captain!     rise    up    and    hear    the 

bells ; 
Rise  up, — for  you  the  flag  is  flung, — for  you  the  bugle 

trills ; 
For  you  bouquets  and  ribboned  wreaths, — for  you  the 

shores  a-crowding; 
For  you  they  call,  the  swaying  mass,  their  eager  faces 
turning ; 
O  Captain!  dear  father; 
This  arm  I  push  beneath  you; 
It  is  some  dream  that  on  the  deck 
You've  fallen  cold  and  dead. 

My  Captain   does  not  answer,  his   lips   are   pale   and 

still ; 
My  father  does  not  feel  my  arm,  he  has  no  pulse  nor 

will; 

But  the  ship,  the  ship,  is  anchored  safe,  its  voyage 

closed  and  done ; 

From    fearful    trip,   the    victor-ship    comes    in    with 

object  won. 

Exult,  O  shore,  and  ring,  O  bells ! 

But  I,  with  silent  tread, 

Walk  the  spot  my  Captain  lies, 

Fallen  cold  and  dead. 

Walt  Whitman. 


250  EXTRACT    FROM    COMMEMORATION    ODE. 


EXTRACT   FROM   COMMEMORATION   ODE. 

Such  was  he,  our  Martyr-Chief, 

Whom  late  the  nation  he  had  led, 

With  ashes  on  her  head, 
Wept  with  the  passion  of  an  angry  grief : 
Forgive  me,  if  from  present  things  I  turn 
To  speak  what  in  my  heart  will  beat  and  burn, 
And  hang  my  wreath  on  his  world-honored  urn. 
Nature,  they  say,  doth  dote, 
And  cannot  make  a  man 
Save  on  some  worn-out  plan, 
Repeating  us  by  rote : 
For  him  her  Old- World  moulds  aside  she  threw, 

And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 

Of  the  unexhausted  West, 
With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 
Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  true. 

How  beautiful  to  see 
Once  more  a  shepherd  of  mankind  indeed, 
Who  loved  his  charge,  but  never  loved  to  lead ; 
One  whose  meek  flock  the  people  joyed  to  be, 

Not  lured  by  any  cheat  of  birth, 

But  by  his  clear-grained  human  worth, 
And  brave  old  wisdom  of  sincerity ! 

They  knew  that  outward  grace  is  dust ; 

They  could  not  choose  but  trust 
In  that  sure-footed  mind's  unfaltering  skill, 

And  supple-tempered  will 
That  bent  like  perfect  steel  to  spring  again  and  thrust. 

His  was  no  lonely  mountain-peak  of  mind, 

Thrusting  to  thin  air  o'er  our  cloudy  bars, 


EXTRACT  FROM  COMMEMORATION  ODE.       25 1 

A  sea-mark  now,  now  lost  in  vapors  blind ; 
Broad  prairie  rather,  genial,  level-lined, 
Fruitful  and  friendly  for  all  human  kind, 
Yet  also  nigh  to  heaven  and  loved  of-  loftiest  stars. 

Nothing  of  Europe  here, 
Or,  then,  of  Europe  fronting  mornward  still, 
Ere  any  names  of  Serf  and  Peer 
Could  Nature's  equal  scheme  deface 
And  thwart  her  genial  will ; 
Here  was  a  type  of  the  true  elder  race, 
And  one  of  Plutarch's  men  talked  with  us  face  to  face. 

I  praise  him  not ;  it  were  too  late ; 
And  some  innative  weakness  there  must  be 
In  him  who  condescends  to  victory 
Such  as  the  Present  gives,  and  cannot  wait, 
Safe  in  himself  as  in  a  fate. 
So  always  firmly  he : 
He  knew  to  bide  his  time, 
And  can  his  fame  abide, 
Still  patient  in  his  simple  faith  sublime, 
Till  the  wise  years  decide. 
Great  captains,  with  their  guns  and  drums, 
Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour, 
But  at  last  silence  comes ; 
These  all  are  gone,  and,  standing  like  a  tower, 
Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame, 

The  kindly-earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man, 
Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame, 
New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American. 

James  Russell  Lowell. 


SOME  STORIES  ABOUT  LINCOLN. 


253 


'*?, 


^iPPlRj^  -^fiis 


i  PI  fil 


SOME   STORIES   ABOUT   LINCOLN. 

( The  following  stories  about  Mr.  Lincoln  are  all  taken  from  a 
little  book,  "Six  Months  at  the  White  House  with  Abraham 
Lincohi"  by  F.  B.  Carpenter,  published  by  Hurd  &*  Hough- 
ton in  1866.  The  book  is  an  excellent  one  for  whoever  de- 
sires to  get  a  good  view  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  home  life  and 
wishes  to  look  at  him  through  the  eyes  of  the  artist  who 
writes  it. — Ed.) 

Judge  Baldwin  of  California,  being  in  Washington, 
called  one  day  on  General  Halleck,  and  presuming 
upon  a  familiar  acquaintance  in  California  a  few  years 
before,  solicited  a  pass  outside  of  our  lines  to  see  a 
brother  in  Virginia,  not  thinking  that  he  would  meet 
with  a  refusal,  as  both  his  brother  and  himself  were 
good  Union  men.  "We  have  been  deceived  too 
often,"  said  General  Halleck,  "and  I  regret  I  can't 
grant  it."  Judge  B.  then  went  to  Stanton,  and  was 
briefly  disposed  of,  with  the  same  result.  Finally,  he 
obtained  an  interview  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  stated 
his  case.  "Have  you  applied  to  General  Halleck?" 
inquired  the  President.  "Yes,  and  met  with  a  flat 
refusal,"  said  Judge  B.  "Then  you  must  see  Stan- 
ton," continued  the  President.  "I  have,  and  with  the 
same  result,"  was  the  reply.  "Well,  then,"  said  Mr. 
Lincoln,  with  a  smile,  "I  can  do  nothing;  for  you 
must  know  that  I  have  very  little  influence  with  this 

Administration.'1 

255 


I 


256  SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN. 

A  lieutenant,  whom  debts  compelled  to  leave  his 
fatherland  and  service,  succeeded  in  being  admitted 
to  President  Lincoln,  and  by  reason  of  his  commend- 
able and  winning  deportment  and  intelligent  appear- 
ance, was  promised  a  lieutenant's  commission  in  a 
cavalry  regiment.  He  was  so  enraptured  with  his 
success,  that  he  deemed  it  a  duty  to  inform  the  Presi- 
dent that  he  belonged  to  one  of  the  oldest  noble 
houses  in  Germany.  "Oh,  never  mind  that,"  said 
Mr.  Lincoln;  "you  will  not  find  that  to  be  an  obstacle 
to  your  advancement. ' ' 

* 
*     * 

A  juvenile  "brigadier"  from  New  York,  with  a 
small  detachment  of  cavalry,  having  imprudently 
gone  within  the  rebel  lines  near  Fairfax  Court  House, 
was  captured  by  "guerrillas. "  Upon  the  fact's  being 
reported  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  said  that  he  was  very 
sorry  to  lose  the  horses!  "What  do  you  mean?" 
inquired  his  informant.  "Why,"  rejoined  the  Presi- 
dent, "I  can  make  a  better  'brigadier'  any  day;  but 
those  horses  cost  the  government  a  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars  a  head!" 

A  gentleman  was  pressing  very  strenuously  the 
promotion  of  an  officer  to  a  "brigadiership. "  "But 
we  have  already  more  generals  than  we  know  what  to 
do  with,"  replied  the  President.  "But,"  persisted 
the    visitor,    "my    friend    is    very    strongly    recom- 


SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN.  257 

mended."  "Now,  look  here,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln, 
throwing  one  leg  over  the  arm  of  his  chair,  "you  are 
a  farmer,  I  believe;  if  not,  you  will  still  understand  me. 
Suppose  you  had  a  large  cattle  yard  full  of  all  sorts  of 
cattle, — cows,  oxen,  bulls, — and  you  kept  killing  and 
selling  and  disposing  of  your  cows  and  oxen,  in  one 
way  and  another, — taking  good  care  of  your  bulls. 
By  and  by  you  would  find  that  you  had  nothing  but  a 
yard  full  of  old  bulls,  good  for  nothing  under  heaven. 
Now,  it  will  be  just  so  with  the  army,  if  I  don't  stop 
making  brigadier-generals." 

The  celebrated  case  of  Franklin  W.  Smith  and 
brother  was  one  of  those  which  most  largely  helped 
to  bring  military  tribunals  into  public  contempt. 
These  two  gentlemen  were  arrested  and  kept  in  con- 
finement, their  papers  seized,  their  business  de- 
stroyed, their  reputation  damaged,  and  a  naval  court- 
martial,  "organized  to  convict,"  pursued  them 
unrelentingly  till  a  wiser  and  juster  hand  arrested  the 
malice  of  their  persecutors.  It  is  known  that  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  after  full  investigation  of  the  case, 
annulled  the  whole  proceedings,  but  it  is  remarkable 
that  the  actual  record  of  his  decision  could  never  be 
obtained  from  the  Navy  Department.  An  exact  copy 
being  withheld,  the  following  was  presented  to  the 
Boston  Board  of  Trade  as  being  very  nearly  the  words 
of  the  President; 


258  SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN. 

"  Whereas,  Franklin  W.  Smith  had  transactions  with  the  Navy 
Department  to  the  amount  of  one  million  and  a  quarter  of 
a  million  of  dollars;  and  whereas,  he  had  the  chance  to  steal  a 
quarter  of  a  million,  and  was  only  charged  with  stealing  twenty- 
two  hundred  dollars — and  the  question  now  is  about  his  stealing 
a  hundred — I  don't  believe  he  stole  anything  at  all.  Therefore, 
the  record  and  findings  are  disapproved — declared  null  and  void, 
and  the  defendants  are  fully  discharged." 

*      * 

As  the  day  of  his  re-inauguration  approached,  Mr. 
Lincoln  said  to  Senator  Clark  of  New  Hampshire, 
"Can't  you  and  others  start  a  public  sentiment  in 
favor  of  making  no  changes  in  offices  except  for 
good  and  sufficient  cause?  It  seems  as  though  the 
bare  thought  of  going  through  again  what  I  did 
the  first  year  here  would  crush  me."  To  another 
he  said:  "I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  make  very 
few  changes  in  the  offices  in  my  gift  for  my  second 
term.  I  think  now  that  I  will  not  remove  a  single 
man,  except  for  delinquency.  To  remove  a  man  is 
very  easy,  but  when  I  go  to  fill  his  place,  there 
are  twenty  applicants,  and  of  these  I  must  make 
nineteen  enemies."  "Under  these  circumstances," 
says  one  of  his  friends,  "Mr.  Lincoln's  natural  charity 
for  all  was  often  turned  into  an  unwonted  suspicion  of 
the  motives  of  men  whose  selfishness  cost  him  so 
much  wear  of  mind.  Once  he  said,  'Sitting  here, 
where  all  the  avenues  to  public  patronage  seem  to 
come  together  in  a  knot,  it  does  seem  to  me  that  our 
people  are  fast  approaching  the  point  where  it  can  be 


SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN.  259 

said  that  seven-eighths  of  them  are  trying  to  find  how 
to  live  at  the  expense  of  the  other  eighth'. ' ' 

No  nobler  reply  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  ruler  than 
that  uttered  by  President  Lincoln  in  response  to  the 
clergyman  who  ventured  to  say,  in  his  presence,  that 
he  hoped  "the  Lord  was  on  our  side."  "lam  not  at 
all  concerned  about  that,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  "for  I 
know  that  the  Lord  is  always  on  the  side  of  the  right. 
But  it  is  my  constant  anxiety  and  prayer  that  I  and 
this  nation  should  be  on  the  Lord's  side." 

There  was  not  unfrequently  a  curious  mingling  of 
humor  and  pathos  exhibited  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  exercise 
of  the  pardoning  power.  Lieutenant-Governor  Ford, 
of  Ohio,  had  an  appointment  with  him  one  evening  at 
six  o'clock.  As  he  entered  the  vestibule  of  the  White 
House  his  attention  was  attracted  by  a  poorly  clad 
young  woman  who  was  violently  sobbing.  He  asked 
her  the  cause  of  her  distress.  She  said  that  she  had 
been  ordered  away  by  the  servants,  after  vainly  wait- 
ing many  hours  to  see  the  President  about  her  only 
brother,  who  had  been  condemned  to  death.  Her 
story  was  this :  She  and  her  brother  were  foreigners, 
and  orphans.  They  had  been  in  this  country  several 
years.  Her  brother  enlisted  in  the  army,  but,  through 
bad  influences,  was  induced  to  desert.     He  was  cap- 


260  SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN. 

tured,  tried,  and  sentenced  to  be  shot — the  old  story. 
The  poor  girl  had  obtained  the  signatures  of  some 
persons  who  had  formerly  known  him  to  a  petition  for 
a  pardon,  and,  alone,  had  come  to  Washington  to  lay 
the  case  before  the  President.  Thronged  as  the 
waiting  rooms  always  were,  she  had  passed  the  long 
hours  of  two  days  trying  in  vain  to  get  an  audience, 
and  had  at  length  been  ordered  away. 

Mr.  Ford's  sympathies  were  at  once  enlisted.  He 
said  that  he  had  come  to  see  the  President,  but  did 
not  know  that  he  should  succeed.  He  told  her,  how- 
ever, to  follow  him  up-stairs  and  he  would  see  what 
could  be  done.  Just  before  reaching  the  door,  Mr. 
Lincoln  came  out,  and  meeting  his  friend,  said  good- 
humoredly,  "Are  you  not  ahead  of  time?"  Mr.  Ford 
showed  his  watch,  with  the  pointers  upon  the  hour  of 
six.  "Well,"  replied  he,  "I  have  been  so  busy  to-day 
that  I  have  not  had  time  to  get  a  lunch.  Go  in  and 
sit  down ;  I  will  be  back  directly. ' ' 

Mr.  Ford  made  the  young  woman  accompany  him 
into  the  office,  and  when  they  were  seated,  said  to  her: 
"Now,  my  good  girl,  I  want  you  to  muster  all  the 
courage  you  have  in  the  world.  When  the  President 
comes  back  he  will  sit  down  in  that  arm  chair.  I 
shall  get  up  to  speak  to  him,  and  as  I  do  so  you  must 
force  yourself  between  us,  and  insist  upon  his  exam- 
ination of  your  papers,  telling  him  it  is  a  case  of  life 
and  death,  and  admits  of  no  delay."  These  instruc- 
tions were  carried  out  to  the  letter,     Mr.  Lincoln  was 


SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN.  26 1 

at  first  somewhat  surprised  at  the  apparent  forward- 
ness of  the  young  woman,  but  observing  her  distressed 
appearance,  he  ceased  conversation  with  his  friend, 
and  commenced  an  examination  of  the  document  she 
had  placed  in  his  hands.     Glancing  from  it  to  the  face 


of  the  petitioner,  whose  tears  had  broken  forth  afresh, 
he  studied  its  expression  for  a  moment,  and  then  his 
eyes  fell  upon  her  scanty  but  neat  dress.  Instantly 
his  face  lighted  up.  "My  poor  girl,"  said  he,  "you 
have  come  here  with  no  governor,  or  senator,  or  mem- 
ber of  congress,  to  plead  your  cause.  You  seem 
honest  and  truthful;  and" — with  much  emphasis — 
"you  don't  wear  hoops;  and  I'll  be  whipped,  but  I  will 
pardon  your  brother. ' ' 


* 
*      * 


Among  a  large  number  of  persons  waiting  in  the 
room  to  speak  with  Mr.  Lincoln  on  a  certain  day  in 
November,  1864,  was  a  small,  pale,  delicate-looking 
boy  about  thirteen  years  old.  The  President  saw  him 
standing,  looking  feeble  and  faint,  and  said:  "Come 
here,  my  boy,  and  tell  me  what  you  want."  The  boy 
advanced,  placed  his  hand  on  the  arm  of  the  Presi- 
dent's chair,  and  with  bowed  head  and  timid  accents 
said:  "Mr.  President,  I  have  been  a  drummer  in  a 
regiment  for  two  years,  and  my  colonel  got  angry 
with  me  and  turned  me  off.  I  was  taken  sick,  and 
have  been  a  long  time  in  hospital.  This  is  the  first 
time  I  have  been  out,  and  I  came  to  see  if  you  could 
not  do  something  for  me."     The  President  looked  at 


262  SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN. 

him  kindly  and  tenderly,  and  asked  him  where  he 
lived.  "I  have  no  home,"  answered  the  boy. 
"Where  is  your  father?"  "He  died  in  the  army,"  was 
the  reply.  "Where  is  your  mother?"  "My  mother  is 
dead  also.  I  have  no  mother,  no  father,  no  brothers, 
no  sisters,  and,"  bursting  into  tears,  "no  friends — 
nobody  cares  for  me."  Mr.  Lincoln's  eyes  rilled 
with  tears,  and  he  said  to  him:  "Can't  you  sell  news- 
papers?" "No,"  said  the  boy,  "I  am  too  weak;  and 
the  surgeon  of  the  hospital  told  me  I  must  leave,  and 
I  have  no  money  and  no  place  to  go  to."  The  scene 
was  wonderfully  affecting.  The  President  drew  forth 
a  card,  and  addressing  on  it  certain  officials  to  whom 
his  request  was  law,  gave  special  directions  "to  care 
for  this  poor  boy."  The  wan  face  of  the  little 
drummer  lit  up  with  a  happy  smile  as  he  received  the 
paper,  and  he  went  away  convinced  that  he  had  one 
good  and  true  friend,  at  least,  in  the  person  of  the 
President. 

In  the  Executive  Chamber  one  evening,  there  were 
present  a  number  of  gentlemen,  among  them  Mr. 
Seward. 

A  point  in  the  conversation  suggesting  the  thought, 
the  President  said:  "Seward,  you  never  heard,  did 
you,  how  I  earned  my  first  dollar?"  "No,"  rejoined 
Mr.  Seward.  "Well,"  continued  Mr.  Lincoln,  "I  was 
about  eighteen  years  of  age.  I  belonged,  you  know, 
to   what  they  call  down   South,  the   'scrubs';    people 


SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN.  263 

who  do  not  own  slaves  are  nobody  there.  But  we 
had  succeeded  in  raising,  chiefly  by  ray  labor,  suffi- 
cient produce,  as  I  thought,  to  justify  me  in  taking  it 
down  the  river  to  sell. 

"After  much  persuasion,  I  got  the  consent  of 
mother  to  go,  and  constructed  a  little  flat-boat,  large 
enough  to  take  a  barrel  or  two  of  things  that  we  had 
gathered,  with  myself  and  little  bundle,  down  to  New 
Orleans.  A  steamer  was  coming  down  the  river.  We 
have,  you  know,  no  wharves  on  the  western  streams; 
and  the  custom  was,  if  passengers  were  at  any  of  the 
landings,  for  them  to  go  out  in  a  boat,  the  steamer 
stopping  and  taking  them  on  board. 

"I  was  contemplating  my  new  flat-boat,  and  won- 
dering whether  I  could  make  it  stronger  or  improve  it 
in  any  particular,  when  two  men  came  down  to  the 
shore  in  carriages  with  trunks,  and  looking  at  the 
different  boats  singled  out  mine,  and  asked,  'Who 
owns  this?'  I  answered,  somewhat  modestly,  'I  do.' 
'Will  you,'  said  one  of  them,  'take  us  and  our  trunks 
out  to  the  steamer?'  'Certainly,'  said  I.  I  was  very 
glad  to  have  the  chance  of  earning  something.  I  sup- 
posed that  each  of  them  would  give  me  two  or  three 
bits.  The  trunks  were  put  on  my  flat-boat,  the  pas- 
sengers seated  themselves  on  the  trunks,  and  I  sculled 
them  out  to  the  steamboat. 

"They  got  on  board,  and  I  lifted  up  their  heavy 
trunks,  and  put  them  on  deck.  The  steamer  was 
about  to  put  on  steam  again,  when  I  called  out  that 


264  SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN. 

they  had  forgotten  to  pay  me.  Each  of  them  took 
from  his  pocket  a  silver  half-dollar,  and  threw  it  on 
the  floor  of  my  boat.  I  could  scarcely  believe  my 
eyes  as  I  picked  up  the  money.  Gentlemen,  you  may 
think  it  was  a  very  little  thing,  and  in  these  days  it 
seems  to  me  a  trifle;  but  it  was  a  most  important 
incident  in  my  life.  I  could  scarcely  credit  that  I,  a 
poor  boy,  had  earned  a  dollar  in  less  than  a  day, — that 
by  honest  work  I  had  earned  a  dollar.  The  world 
seemed  wider  and  fairer  before  me.  I  was  a  more 
hopeful  and  confident  being  from  that  time." 

At  one  of  the  "levees,"  in  the  winter  of  1864,  dur- 
ing a  lull  in  the  hand-shaking,  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
addressed  by  two  lady  friends,  one  of  whom  is  the 
wife  of  a  gentleman  subsequently  called  into  the  cabi- 
net. Turning  to  them  with  a  weary  air,  he  remarked 
that  it  was  a  relief  to  have  now  and  then  those  to  talk 
to  who  had  no  favors  to  ask.  The  ladv  referred  to  is 
a  radical, — a  New  Yorker  by  birth,  but  for  many  years 
a  resident  of  the  west.  She  replied,  playfully,  "Mr. 
President,  I  have  one  request  to  make."  "Ah!"  said 
he,    at    once    looking    grave.      "Well,    what    is    it?" 

"That  you  suppress  the  infamous Times ■,"  was  the 

rejoinder.  After  a  brief  pause,  Mr.  Lincoln  asked 
her  if  she  had  ever  tried  to  imagine  how  she  would 
have  felt,  in  some  former  administration  to  which  she 
was   opposed,    if   her    favorite    newspaper    had    been 


SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN.  265 

seized  by  the  government  and  suppressed.  The  lady- 
replied  that  it  was  not  a  parallel  case ;  that  in  circum- 
stances like  those  then  existing-,  when  the  nation  was 
struggling  for  its  very  life,  such  utterances  as  were 
daily  put  forth  in  that  journal  should  be  suppressed 
by  the  strong  hand  of  authority;  that  the  cause  of 
loyalty  and  good  government  demanded  it.  "I  fear 
you  do  not  fully  comprehend,"  returned  the  President, 
"the  danger  of  abridging  the  liberties  of  the  people. 
Nothing  but  the  very  sternest  necessity  can  ever 
justify  it.  A  government  had  better  go  to  the  very 
extreme  of  toleration,  than  to  do  aught  that  could  be 
construed  into  an  interference  with,  or  to  jeopardize 
in  any  degree,  the  common  rights  of  its  citizens." 

On  Thursday  of  a  certain  week  two  ladies,  from 
Tennessee,  came  before  the  President,  asking  the 
release  of  their  husbands,  held  as  prisoners  of  war  at 
Johnson's  Island.  They  were  put  off  until  Friday, 
when  they  came  again,  and  were  again  put  off  until 
Saturday.  At  each  of  the  interviews  one  of  the  ladies 
urged  that  her  husband  was  a  religious  man.  On 
Saturday,  when  the  President  ordered  the  release  of 
the  prisoner,  he  said  to  this  lady, — "You  say  your  hus- 
band is  a  religious  man;  tell  him,  when  you  meet 
him,  that  I  say  I  am  not  much  of  a  judge  of  religion, 
but  that  in  my  opinion  the  religion  which  sets  men  to 
rebel  and  fight  against  their  government  because,  as 


266  SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN. 

they  think,  that  government  does  not  sufficiently  help 
some  men  to  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  other 
men's  faces,  is  not  the  sort  of  religion  upon  which 
people  can  get  to  heaven. ' ' 

*      * 

The  famous  "peace"  conference,  on  board  the  River 
Queen,  in  Hampton  Roads,  between  President  Lincoln 
and  Secretary  Seward,  and  the  rebel  commissioners, 
Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell,  took  place  the  3d  of 
February,  1865. 

Mr.  Davis  had  on  this  occasion,  as  on  that  of  Mr. 
Stephens'  visit  to  Washington,  made  it  a  condition 
that  no  conference  should  be  had  unless  his  rank  as 
commander  or  president  should  first  be  recognized.  Mr. 
Lincoln  declared  that  the  only  ground  on  which  he  could 
rest  the  justice  of  the  war — either  with  his  own  people 
or  with  foreign  powers — was  that  it  was  not  a  war  for 
conquest,  for  that  the  States  had  never  been  separated 
from  the  Union.  Consequently,  he  could  not  recog- 
nize another  government  inside  of  the  one  of  which 
he  alone  was  President,  nor  admit  the  separate  inde- 
pendence of  States  that  were  yet  a  part  of  the 
Union.  "That,"  said  he,  "would  be  doing  what  you 
have  so  long  asked  Europe  to  do  in  vain,  and  be 
resigning  the  only  thing  the  armies  of  the  Union  are 
fighting  for." 

Mr.  Hunter  made  a  long  reply  to  this,  insisting  that 
the  recognition  of  Davis'  power  to  make  a  treaty  was 


SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN.  267 

the  first  and  indispensable  step  to  peace,  and  referred 
to  the  correspondence  between  King  Charles  I.  and  his 
Parliament,  as  a  trustworthy  precedent  of  a  constitu- 
tional ruler  treating  with  rebels. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  face  then  wore  that  indescribable 
expression  which  generally  preceded  his  hardest  hits, 
and  he  remarked:  "Upon  questions  of  history  I  must 
refer  you  to  Mr.  Seward,  for  he  is  posted  in  such  things, 
and  I  don't  pretend  to  be  bright.  My  only  distinct 
recollection  of  the  matter  is,  that  Charles  lost  his  head. ' ' 

*     * 

Mr.  Lincoln's  wit  was  never  malicious  nor  rudely 
personal.  Once  when  Mr.  Douglas  had  attempted  to 
parry  an  argument  by  impeaching  the  veracity  of  a 
senator  whom  Mr.  Lincoln  had  quoted,  he  answered* 
that  the  question  was  not  one  of  veracity,  but  simply 
one  of  argument.  "By  a  course  of  reasoning,  Euclid 
proves  that  all  the  angles  in  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two 
right  angles.  Now,  if  you  undertake  to  disprove  that 
proposition,  would  you  prove  it  to  be  false  by  calling 
Euclid  a  liar?" 

The  following  is  related  by  a  newspaper  corre- 
spondent of  "a  couple  of  aged,  plain  country  people, 
poorly  clad,  but  with  frank  open  countenances, ' '  who 
had  called  to  see  the  President: 

"Now  is  your  time,  dear,"  said  the  husband,  as  the 

*Speech  at  Charleston,  September  18,  1858. 


268  SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN. 

President  dismissed  the  one  preceding  them.  The 
lady  stepped  forward,  made  a  low  courtesy,  and  said: 

4 'Mr.  President." 

Mr.  Lincoln,  looking  over  his  spectacles,  fixed  those 
gray,  piercing,  yet  mild,  eyes  upon  her,  then  lifting 
his  head  and  extending  his  hand,  he  said,  in  the  kind- 
est tones: 

"Well,  good  lady,  what  can  I  do  for  you?" 

"Mr.  President,"  she  resumed,  "I  feel  so  embar- 
rassed I  can  hardly  speak.  I  never  spoke  to  a  Presi- 
dent before ;  but  I  am  a  good  Union  woman  down  in 
Maryland,  and  my  son  is  wounded  badly,  and  in  the 
hospital,  and  I  have  been  trying  to  get  him  out,  but 
somehow  couldn't,  and  they  said  I  had  better  come  right 
to  you.  When  the  war  first  broke  out  I  gave  my  son 
first  to  God,  and  then  told  him  he  might  go  fight  the 
rebels;  and  now  if  you  will  let  me  take  him  home  I  will 
nurse  him  up,  and  just  as  soon  as  he  gets  well  enough 
he  shall  go  right  back  and  help  put  down  the  rebellion. 
He  is  a  good  boy,  and  don't  want  to  shirk  the  service." 

I  was  looking  full  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  face.  I  saw  the 
tears  gathering  in  his  eyes,  and  his  lips  quivered  as  he 
replied: 

"Yes,  yes,  God  bless  you!  you  shall  have  your  son. 
What  hospital  did  you  say?"  It  seemed  a  relief  to 
him  to  turn  aside  and  write  a  few  words,  which  he 
handed  to  the  woman,   saying:  "There,  give  that  to 

;  and  you  will  get  your  son,  if  he  is  able  to  go 

home  with  you." 


SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN.  269 

In  the  July  following  Mr.  Lincoln's  inauguration,  an 
extra  session  of  Congress  was  called.  In  the  message 
then  sent  in,  speaking  of  secession,  and  the  measures 
taken  by  the  Southern  leaders  to  bring  it  about,  there 
occurs  the  following  sentence:  "With  rebellion  thus 
sugar-coated,  they  have  been  drugging  the  public 
mind  of  their  section  for  more  than  thirty  years ;  until, 
at  length,  they  have  brought  many  good  men  to  a  will- 
ingness to  take  up  arms  against  the  government,"  etc. 
Mr.  Defrees,  the  government  printer,  told  me  that, 
when  the  message  was  being  printed,  he  was  a  good 
deal  disturbed  by  the  use  of  the  term  "sugar-coated," 
and  finally  went  to  the  President  about  it.  Their 
relations  to  each  other  being  of  the  most  intimate 
character,  he  told  Mr.  Lincoln  frankly  that  he  ought 
to  remember  that  a  message  to  Congress  was  a  differ- 
ent affair  from  a  speech  at  a  mass-meeting  in  Illinois  ; 
that  the  messages  became  a  part  of  history,  and  should 
be  written  accordingly. 

"What  is  the  matter  now?"  inquired  the  President. 

"Why,"  said  Mr.  Defrees,  "you  have  used  an  undig- 
nified expression  in  the  message;"  and  then,  reading 
the  paragraph  aloud,  he  added,  "I  would  alter  the 
structure  of  that,  if  I  were  you. ' ' 

"Defrees,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  "that  word 
expresses  precisely  my  idea,  and  I  am  not  going  to 
change  it.  The  time  will  never  come  in  this  country 
when  the  people  won't  know  exactly  what  'sugar- 
coated'  means!" 


270  SOME    STORIES    ABOUT    LINCOLN. 


1 1 


Upon  entering  the  President's  office  one  after- 
noon," says  a  Washington  correspondent,  "I  found 
Mr.  Lincoln  busily  counting  greenbacks.  'This,  sir,' 
said  he,  'is  something  out  of  my  usual  line;  but  a 
President  of  the  United  States  has  a  multiplicity  of 
duties  not  specified  in  the  Constitution  or  acts  of 
Congress.  This  is  one  of  them.  This  money  belongs 
to  a  poor  negro  who  is  a  porter  in  the  Treasury 
Department,  at  present  very  bad  with  the  small-pox. 
He  is  now  in  hospital,  and  could  not  draw  his  pay 
because  he  could  not  sign  his  name.  I  have  been  at 
considerable  trouble  to  overcome  the  difficulty  and  get 
it  for  him,  and  have  at  length  succeeded  in  cutting 
red  tape,  as  you  newspaper  men  say.  I  am  now 
dividing  the  money  and  putting  by  a  portion  labeled, 
in  an  envelope,  with  my  own  hands,  according  to  his 
wish;'  and  he  proceeded  to  endorse  the  package  very 
carefully. ' '  No  one  witnessing  the  transaction  could 
fail  to  appreciate  the  goodness  of  heart  which 
prompted  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  turn 
aside  for  a  time  from  his  weighty  cares  to  succor  one 
of  the  humblest  of  his  fellow-creatures  in  sickness  and 
sorrow, 


